UNICEF, Bahrain join hands for child welfare

Manama : Bahrain will now work more closely with United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to improve the lives of children, a senior UNICEF representative said.

UNICEF will be holding talks with organizations in Bahrain in the coming months to assess how Bahrain can help the development of children; the UN body will also be holding events and workshops on the subject, said Dr. Ghassan Khalil, a senior advice for Middle East and North Africa.

Commencing the series of activities in the Kingdom on Dr. Ghassan delivered a lecture about the UN Convention on the rights of the child at Isa Culture Center on Wednesday evening.

 “The lecture was solely on the convention but in later events we will talk about Bahrain and the practical steps that the country can take to improve the lives of children,” he told DT News. 

“Yes it has been planned to have more events. It will be announced soon,” he said. 

Explaining more about the convention he said, “It is a convention that was taken up by the General Assembly of the United nations in 1989. During the lecture I spoke about how we can utilize this convention how it is a tool for betterment of the future of children. I shared how to utilize the convention and how rights based programs can create a better environment for children.”

Dr. Ghassan Khalil said that it is important for schools and universities to learn from the convention.

 “The purpose of education is the development of the child. Education should not be at the expense of violating the rights of the child. So education should not only focus on creating workforce for the economy, it should also focus on personality development and other aspects. It is not about the number of children enrolled in schools, its the quality of education that matters, “ he said.

The lecture was organized by United Nations office in Bahrain in collaboration with Isa Cultural Center. 

Speaking on the occasion Amin El Sharkawi, United Nations Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative said that UNICEF is expected to be ‘active’ in Bahrain.

“I would like to welcome back, UNICEF, they have been very active in Bahrain for many years. Recently, we have missed them for a few years when their activities here were limited, but now they are back again and will continue to be active. This is one of the first events being organized following the signing of the Strategic Partnership Framework Between Kingdom of Bahrain and United Nations,” he said.