International Day for Street Children 2013 was celebrated all over the world in 132 countries - an increase on 2012 of 247%.
With the CSC network holding various events in their project countries around the world, the Consortium for Street Children itself staged an awareness raising event in London at Old Street station. The main theme of this year's event was to demand the United Nations officially recognise the day, and we carried this out under the banner of 'Home Street Home' - recognising that for many children, the street is their home.
CSC worked with a number of creative agencies to create large 'bedroom signs' which were then hung at three of the exits to Old Street station, highlighting that although the surroundings were grim, they were the kind of place many children end up sleeping in. CSC staff stood by the signs and throughout the station handing out flyers that explained the importance of UN recognition of the day, and offered a free text number for people to add their names to the petition.
Over the course of the day we received over 1500 signatories, including signatures from a number of high level UN figures and celebrities such as Stephen Fry.
While the awareness raising event was taking place, we took our social media campaign viral. Initially we designed posters boldly stating "I Demand a Day" or "We Demand a Day" for people across the world to print off and hold up, sending us a photograph of them doing so. People were also encouraged to design their own posters and send them in. The accompanying social media campaign was a huge success, with hundreds of photographs being sent in from as far away as rural Tanzania (see photo below from CSC member Mkombozi) and Calcutta, India.
With awareness raising taking place both online and offline, we ended up receiving over 3000 signatures by the end of April, and our Facebook and Twitter followers rose dramatically to over 1100 and 1900 respectively.
CSC will continue to raise awareness for the bid to get UN recognition of the day throughout the year, aiming to deliver the signatures in full to the UN when we have increased their numbers even more.
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The 2013 International Day for Street Children is just a few days away! This year we are demanding that the United Nations recognises the Day, so that street children and their champions have a louder voice. It may only be one day a year, but it helps us get closer to realising street children's rights. We want the whole world to hear Maggie in Zambia saying "I want an education"; Pedro in Bolivia asking "I want the government to listen to me"; and Jo in the USA requesting "I want to be safe".
There are lots of ways of helping to support the Day - you can sign the Demand a Day petition, change your Facebook profile pic, tweet about the Day or hold up an 'I demand a day' sign and send us the photo. For ways to get involved please visit www.streetchildrenday.org
Thank you for helping to make the International Day for Street Children 2013 even more impactful, raising awareness of street children across the world.
International Day for Street Children 2013 is just around the corner and this year Consortium for Street Children will be asking its supporters, decision makers, opinion formers and the wider public to 'Demand a Day'.
Following on from our last project report, we want International Day for Street Children to become a designated day at the United Nations, meaning more support, awareness, and action for street children around the world.
We can't do this alone, and our network members of over 80 organisations working with street children, and the public play a huge part in helping us to achieve our aim. So along with our ask for everyone supporting this year's event to 'Demand a day', we're promoting the idea that although the process behind getting a day official recognised by the UN is a long and often complex process, it's one that 'starts with you'
We want to make the voices of every one of our supporters, members and stakeholders heard, joining together as a unified demand for the 12th April to be recognised as International Day for Street Children.
