Country Reports on International Children's Day (WIDF, 1952)

=== [PDF page 1] === Children applaud the cultural program ofjered them in Treptower Park, Berlin (Democratic Sector) fight for peace, and against the atrocities in Korea, Viet- Nam, Greece, etc. Many meetings, many evening entertainments were organised. Show windows, streamers, and publications celebrated International Children’s Day. The Pioneers of Stara Zagora organised peace camp-fires attended by 24,000 children. Many kindergartens were opened with the help of work brigades. The agricultural cooperatives of Karnobat, to-assure the Korean children expected ‘in Bulgaria of sufficient food, gave more than 29,200 pounds of wheat, 940 quarts of oil, 360 pounds of sugar, wool, cheese, etc... The women of the Pazardjik district collected more than 300 pounds of wool for the Korean children. The peasants of the village Streltcha sent a request to the National Peace Committee to allow them to receive 22 Korean children. In Roumania, 40 new maternity homes were opened The celebration of June. ist was carried out in the spirit of the fight for peace, in defense of the lives of children. Over 130,000 women accomplished more than 650,000 /hours of volunteer work to arrange seasonal children’s centers, to plant trees in the parks reserved for children, and for the equipment of playgrounds. In eight regions, 40 new maternity homes were opened. In all the regions, meeting between elite workers and children took place. A poster was published in 60,000 copies, as well as a postcard whose theme was “the life of the children in the U.SS.R., in the Peoples’ Democracies, and in the capitalist and colonial countries.” In every town, meetings organised in the framework of the fight for peace and on the subject of children were 16 organised by. those who had been delegates to the International Conference in Vienna. In honor of June lst, Pioneer Houses were officially opened in the cities of Stalin and Arad. In China: Everywhere in China, International Children’s Day was celebrated joyously. In Peking 6,000 women and mothers, teachers, welfare workers, and members of the government took part in various festivals, along with the Honorary President of the National Union of Democratic Women of China, Mrs. Ho Hsiang King and several distinguished foreign guests. On June lst films for children were shown in all cinemas. In Mexico: For June Ist, the Sponsoring Committee in Defense of Children prepared an exhibition -of photographs on the conditions of Mexican children and those of children in the Peoples’ Democracies, in the headquarters of the Democratic Union of Mexican Women, On June 10, a conference on the work and resolutions of the Vienna Conference took place under the auspices of the National Sponsoring Committee in Defense of Children and the Democratic Union of Women. In Venezuela: On June Ist, an exhibition on the situation of children in Venezuela was opened in the headquarters of the Newspaper Workers’ Union. Conferences on children were held with well-known professors. In Indonesia: A committee was formed for International Children’s Day, composed of women’s organisations, youth organisations, teachers, unions, parents’ associations, personalities, etc. June Ist wars marked by children’s demonstrations with the slogans, “Long live June lst, International Children’s Day,” “Fathers and mothers, we do not want war, we want to study,’ “Raise our parents’ wages.” There were meetings, collections of clothing, children’s parties, children’s singing contests, theater productions in which the actors were children. A film on the effects of war on children’s lives, played by children, was released for the occasion. This Indonesian film, the first of its kind, was sent to the Film Festival in Karlovy Vary (Czechoslovakia). In the United States: On June 5th a meeting took place in a New York hall, where Gene Weltfish and delegates to the Conference spoke. A folder called “Our Children Need Peace as the Flowers Need Sunlight” was distributed. Gene Weltfish called for a protest against bacteriological warfare. Mrs. Molly Lucas declared that the government of the United States must put an end to its policy of war and murder. The participators in this meeting passed a reso- === [PDF page 2] === lution to call on the parents and teachers of the United States to educate children in a spirit of peace and humanity. In Belgium, many delegations visited the authorities Children’s Day was celebrated on June 15 in six Belgian cities—Brussels, Anvers, Charleroi, Liege, Alost and Grammont. (Preparations were made through demand actions varying according to the situation of children in the different regions. Thus at Anvers the demands raised were for school holidays, clean housing, and playgrounds; in Brussels, for playgrounds, re-establishment of the nursing mothers’ allotment, free meals for the chlidren of unemployed, school vacations; in Alost, for new school buildings and playgrounds; in Grammont, for playgrounds. Practically everywhere collections of signatures were made, especially at the infant consultation eenters and the maternity homes, for re-establishment of the nursing mothers’ allotment and against the Social Security cuts (notably abandonment of payments for several pharmaceutical products). Already on May 15th, a delegation of 12 women appeared before Parliament with hundreds of signatures from young mothers for re-establishment of the nursing mothers’ allotment. They asked for and were granted an audience with representatives of the four political parties, The National Committee on Children held sessions where the International Conference wag reported on, especially in ‘Brussels and Liege and during the Assizes on Children. Delegations from the National Committee on Children were received by, the Social Adviser of the Prime Minister and at the Colonial Ministry. They presented the Children’s Charter and the Vienna Appeal there, and handed the Colonial Ministry demands concerning Negro children in the Congo. 5 D JSS Rare In Switzerland: Vey In Geneva a country festival for children was organised on June 15th by the Women’s Popular Movement. for the benefit of their kindergarten. The programme included among other things an exhibition of children’s drawings and the award of prizes for the best ones; games, children’s songs, contests for the children. Streamers with various slogans attracted the attention of parents—an appeal to men to respond to the referendum asking for the right to vote, a protest against the rearmament budget demanding that part of that budget be used for social projects—day nurseries, kindergartens, maternity insurance, etc., protests against atomic and _ bacteriological weapons. In Lausanne the celebration of In- — ' ternational Children’s Day Was organised by the Women’s Movement on March 8th, An exhibition of children’s literature and children’s drawings was opened that day, devoted to the Vienna Conference and to exposing the horror of bacteriological warfare. Personalities and youth associations of very diverse tendencies participated in it. This exhibition was warmly welcomed by the population. In Egypt: For the first time in history, Egyptian children had their own festival. June Ist, International Children’s Day, was celebrated in Cairo. In every neighborhood of the city, children spent joyous hours. Hundreds of them received gifts and toys. Following the International Conference in Defense of Children in Vienna, a Committee was set up in Egypt for preparing the celebration of this day. The Committee included well-known personalities, professors and representatives of women’s organisations—Hefni Mahmoud Pasha, former Minister, Mrs. Ceza Nabaouri, secretary of the Feminist Union, Miss Alida Naisrallah, delegate to the Vienna Conference and member of the Women’s Union, and Mrs. Zeinab Ghazaly, president of the Moslem Women’s Association. After the celebration, a conference was held where intellectuals and women met to discuss children’s problems. There were speeches on the long-neglected rights of Egyptian children to health, education and better welfare services. The conference decided to set up groups and prepare a charter to state the bases of a scientific study of the problems of children, raising the level of social consciousness, for the defense of children and the construction of nurseries, hospitals, etc. In the Cairo Reform Home on June 1st, children are offered toys and delicacies for the first time