Children in our hearts
AT the awards ceremony of the Suzanne Mubarak 2002 Children's Literature Prizes held at the Cairo Opera House on Sunday, Mrs Suzanne Mubarak called on Egypt's literary writers to "consider culture a pathway to brotherhood and children's books messengers of peace and forgiveness." She said the attention she gives to children's books emanates not only from her feeling of responsibility towards the country's children, but from her strong belief in the value of books and in the right of every child to have access to what Mrs Mubarak called "a beautiful book".
"Books have a vast impact on a child's character, his confidence and his ability to create and interact with society," Mrs Mubarak said. "Reading is the first way to instill human values and principles in children at a time when their personalities are being formed. The culture of reading is a basic necessity for building a society able to see its way into the future."
On Monday, Mrs Mubarak announced the establishment of a fund to support a national strategy to tackle the phenomenon of homeless children. The new strategy was launched at the Cairo International Conference Centre in Nasr City at an event organised jointly by the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood and UNICEF. The strategy has three main pillars: that it be incorporated into the national plan for human resource development, that it aims at merging these children into society so that they no longer are a marginalised segment of society and that it depends on realistic solutions that can be put into action.
Mrs Mubarak said that the term "street children" was an insult to these children who, she explained, are victims of their circumstances, and asked all concerned to use the term "homeless children" instead.
