On the Rights of the Child and 10-year-old pupils

2010.10.10

Celeste Murphy, Lauren’s mom, sent me an email message a couple of weeks ago asking if I am interested to speak about the rights of the child before 150 10-year-old pupils. I had mixed feelings when I heard this. I had given many presentations to various conferences attended by various groups: migrants, development workers, policy makers, etc. but I never had an experience speaking before a large group of children.
But the topic intrigued me most: The Rights of the Child. The Convention on the Rights of the Child is about children so I thought if I accept the invitation, I will have a chance to speak before the age group for whom the Convention was ratified for.

I finally accepted the invitation and several email exchanges with Michael Hogg, the teacher responsible of the event followed.

For several days I was asking myself how best I could communicate to the children about the Convention of the Rights of the Child in a manner that they will understand and appreciate it. The Convention contained 42 rights of the child and the more I studied each article, the more I am convinced that most of these children are already enjoying their rights. How would I make them understand that unfortunately, in other countries, millions of children actually are deprived of their basic rights? Would they be interested to hear about the plight of other children?

I decided to focus my presentation on the four basic rights of the child namely: the right to survival; the right to development, the right to protection, and the right to participation. Then, I would speak about why and how poor children are deprived to get education and relate it with the work of WIMLER.

I was scheduled to speak last October 8 at 9:00 am. I thought it was a good time because the children are not yet tired and hoped that I can capture their attention.


Shortly before the start of the presentation, I met Michael and Lauren who is instrumental why I was invited to speak before her schoolmates. Lauren has shared with her Mom about their lessons on the rights of the child and Mom Celeste in turn, informed her teacher about me and that was how the link was established.

When I saw the school campus of the Renaissance College, I thought to myself how really lucky these children are to have access to excellent education, school facilities and environment conducive for learning. It is different than from the schools which I saw in Africa and in the Philippines. In fact, the school campus is much better than the universities in the Philippines. The school auditorium is huge complete with the modern facilities, much better than the venue of some international conferences I attended.

Here are children who are very fortunate to have all opportunities to develop their talents and skills while poor children have to struggle to get education. According to the Asian Development Bank, one in five children in the Philippines never gets to attend primary school because of financial constraints while another three out of every 10 drop out before finishing their elementary education. Not having education would mean they will never have a chance to get out of poverty.

It was heartwarming to see the children so eager to hear about the situation of other children. Some perhaps could not believe that many children go to school without eating their breakfast and whose parents could not afford even to buy books. While some children hope to have the latest electronic gadgets, other children in some parts of the world long to have school bags, notebooks, and pencils.

Several pupils asked me why I started WIMLER. Instead of enumerating to them the objectives of the foundation which I co-founded with my family, I shared with them that when I was young; I was one of the poor pupils who desperately wanted to finish education. I have to stop a couple of years because my parents could not afford to pay for my college education. When I was young, I was like other poor children who worked by selling fruits an vegetables in the market to earn some money to buy my notebooks and pencils and other things I needed in school. When I was in college, I worked full-time during the day and studied in the evening to support my family.  I was fortunate that a Catholic priest in Chicago, USA whom I never met in person, provided me with some funds so I could finish my college education while the money I earned I could use to support my mother and 7 siblings. Without support from other, I will not become what I am today. By helping poor children, I just simply keep my promise to ”give back”.


It was a fantastic audience. I wish we had more time to answer the questions of the children. Perhaps, only a couple of them really absorbed what I said. It does not matter. One child is good enough because perhaps in the future, he or she can share the passion to care for those who are in need with another one.

I am deeply grateful to Celeste and Lauren Murphy, mother and daughter, and to Michael Hogg, Year 6 teacher at Renaissance College in Heng On, Hong Hong for giving me a rare opportunity to speak the rights of the child and the work of WIMLER to advocate for the rights of all children to live a full and meaningful life.

Leila Rispens-Noel

President and Co-founder

WIMLER Partnership for Social Progress


Check out the powerpoint presentation here