Published 18.11.2019
by Kids’ Own

Exhibition at the Model, Sligo, to mark the UN International Day for the Eradication of Poverty

Throughout the month of October, Kids’ Own in collaboration with Foróige CRIB Youth Project and Health Cafe,  developed a  project with a group of young people in response to the UN International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

As November 2019 marks the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) in November 1989, the theme of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty this year was: “Acting to empower children, their families and communities to end poverty”.

During October, participants worked alongside Kids’ Own writer Mary Branley and artist Kiera O’Toole two creative sessions, developing responses to the issue of ending poverty.

Some insights into the group’s creative process and engagement on issues of poverty were exhibited recently in the Model, Sligo and provided an important platform for hearing young people’s voices on this issue. The group of young people led and directed the installation of the exhibition, which included hundreds of miniature figures representing economic equality, responses in writing, and spoken word.

Pictured below are some of the participants with part of their exhibition, consisting of figures of ‘nobodies’ and ‘somebodies’, designed to represent economic inequalities. There are some further photographs from the exhibition of the group’s creative work below too.

 

Participants also responded through writing. Below in an excerpt from one participant’s piece “A Child in Poverty”:

 

“A child in poverty is a child who has been put in a very vulnerable place. This child is only small but has seen and felt the brutal side of the world… You say “Children are small, what would they know about the real world?”

 

Children may be younger and smaller but they know more about life than you’ll ever imagine.  They feel scared, tired, emotional, vulnerable.  But most of all they just want a home, a family, a life. They want a chance to experience what a real home is.”

 

 

 

 

The Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection supports this project as part of its funding initiative for the United Nations Day for the Eradication of Poverty.The views expressed in this document are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection.
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