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One of the most tweeted articles this week wasn’t by the Prime Minister or an award-winning journalist – it was an opinion piece written by an 11-year-old boy.

On Monday, Charlie Fine put forward his view on why ethics classes in schools should not be abolished. It was an articulate call to action directed to NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell, asking him not to bow to pressure from Fred Nile to have the classes removed.

Whether or not one agrees with Charlie’s point of view, it is refreshing to hear the voice of a child in a debate about an issue that directly affects children. I applaud Charlie’s willingness to put forward his opinion in this way, in what is typically an adult forum. His arguments are clear and well thought through, and he certainly isn’t afraid to say what he thinks.

It is apparent from the reactions that many people are uncomfortable with children entering a political debate. The fact Charlie’s article was so widely tweeted – and doubts were cast on whether the piece really was written by a child – goes to show how unused to hearing children’s voices we are on issues that have long been seen as the exclusive domain of adults. We are more comfortable seeing children as human beings to nurture or chastise. To hear or see them as citizens actively participating in social and political debate is completely unfamiliar to us.

Yet the notion that children should be seen and heard has steadily gained ground, aided by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Australian schools have Student Representative Councils, local government bodies have youth advisory committees and children in the Australian legal system are provided with separate representation. International NGOs are beginning to consult children about the design and evaluation of aid programs in recognition that such processes not only empower children but improve decision-making and outcomes.

ChildFund actively seeks children’s views through a range of initiatives, including our global children’s survey. Last year, we polled 3,000 children aged 10-12 from 30 developing countries across the world, as well as children from Australia, to help us understand children’s experience and ensure their voices are heard. The survey will be conducted on an even larger scale this year.

But does it really matter what children think or are decisions best left to those with maturity on their side? The research evidence is still catching up, however, there are strong indications of the benefits of child involvement in decision-making and development. In Australia and throughout the developing world there are numerous examples where children have been given the opportunity to participate and, as a result, are now leading change in their communities.

Children are capable of contributing ideas and opinions on issues affecting their lives, and bring the freshness and vitality that comes with youth. We can’t afford to ignore their point of view.

I’d love to hear your views on this. Do you know an inspiring child like Charlie Fine?

Three of us travelled to Port Moresby last week to work with our team there, building up our capacity to involve children and youth as active participants in activities that ChildFund supports. This effort is part of our commitment to working on the causes of child poverty – why it exists, how it is perpetuated from generation to generation.

Not only is participation key to overcoming poverty – that’s a good reason for focusing on it, but we also know that participation is essential to program effectiveness and sustainability. Not to mention that it is a basic, fundamental human right – for children and youth, this is spelt out in the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Not involving people in activities that concern them is, simply, a violation of their human rights.

So we spent two days at the ChildFund office in Port Moresby, learning from each other about how we can enhance child and youth participation through the project cycle, and learning from other ChildFund Alliance members’ experience. Importantly, we also learned from other agencies, organisations that were kind enough to come to our workshop and share their experience – Oxfam, the World Bank, World Vision, and the PNG government itself, all gave informative and inspirational presentations. Of particular interest, to me personally, was the presentation given by Ipul Powesau of the Papua New Guinea Disabled Peoples Association; here we learned about participation and the power of collective action for a particular, excluded group.

And we spent time learning the tools, attitudes and approaches we will need to build the voice and participation of the people we work with in the field – especially children and youth.

Our third day was practical. We took what we learned in the first two days of the workshop out to Laloki – where ChildFund is working with a local literacy school to support vulnerable children from Baruni waste dump and the local community – and we met with over 50 children and youth to learn about their ideas for the rehabilitation of their school, the gardens, the residence, etc.

It was an action-packed morning. After an hour spent in the hot sun connecting with the kids through soccer, rugby and singing, we started the consultation by getting their consent for working with us that day. We broke into five groups – by age and gender – and used the range of techniques that we had learned, getting input from the kids to help us finalise project preparations. The group I was in gave feedback through a focus group and also drew maps of the site – as it is, and as they would like to see it in the future. You can see the kids showing off one of their maps in the photo below.

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