Children are our future and National Children’s Week celebrates the right of children to enjoy childhood. It’s also a time when children get to demonstrate their talents, skills and abilities.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Children's Week is an annual event celebrated in Australia held around the fourth Wednesday in October. This year it runs from October 21-29. In 1996 it was decided to adopt a permanent theme for the week: A caring world shares, as a reflection its aims.
Many events and activities are organised at a national, state and local level to focus the wider community on children, their needs and achievements. Thousands of children and their families around the country are involved through the participation of schools, playgroups, childcare, kindergartens, cultural groups, libraries, departments and community groups.
Designated by the nations of the world, Universal Children's Day calls society to a greater response to the plight of many millions of children around the world who are denied the basic necessities of a happy childhood and education. It also calls on Australians to consider conditions in society which affect the lives and futures of children here.
The mission of the Children's Week Council of Australia is to encourage, support, guide co-ordinate and monitor the widest possible participation of all states and territories in Children's Week. The council endeavours to ensure programs and activities are open to all children regardless of race, colour, sex, ability, religion, nationality or social origin.
The origins of the week date back to 1954, when the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed Universal Children's Day as a day to promote friendship and understanding among children of the world. This developed into a day that focused attention on the issues and needs of children and their families.
In line with its mandate, UNICEF charged countries to determine the date for Universal Children's Day to fit their own arrangements. Children's Week in Australia takes Universal Children's Day as its central focus and is always in October.
Before 1977 Child Care Week was held in a number of Australian states and territories at different times of the year with the focus being children in care or institutions. In the 1980s the federal government was eager for Universal Children's Day to be celebrated throughout Australia and requested every state and territory Children's Week Committee agree to hold their Child Care Week celebration in conjunction with Universal Children's Day. In 1985, after many years of observance of a week focusing mainly on children in care, it was decided to co-ordinate a national week to include all children.
Source: www.childrensweek.org.au
