Tales on Children’s Rights

The Right

to

a Good

Education

by

Isaac Debattista

Have you ever wondered about Education? Many children don’t like school but it is a thing which you should never trade or give away. I am going to tell you a story about a girl who would give anything for knowledge.

It was 1980’s in the city of London. A little girl named Mary Jane was working in a shoe factory called Sammy’s Slippers. The factory was the last place you would want to work at. Mary was only 10 years old when she started working at this horrible factory. she was forced to work by her foster parents called the Harvey’s to earn money for them. She hated working there. She had a dream to go to school but the Harvey’s didn’t want to make her stop working and, to add insult to injury, they forbid her to say ‘school’. If she did, they would refuse her food for a week.

One night she had enough and she packed her belongings and with no sound, she left the house. But where was she supposed to go? She was a runaway girl who had no shelter, no food, no water and nowhere to go. She never felt so lonely and scared.

It was a month after she had run away. She was surviving on rainwater, breadcrumbs and sometimes dead pigeons. But something spectacular happened. A 30-year old man, wearing a crisp suit and a bow tie walked near Mary Jane and accidentally dropped his wallet. Mary Jane found it and looked inside it. There was at least 500 pounds in it. But instead of taking the money all for herself, she ran to the man and alerted him. She gave the wallet to the man and the man looked at her with surprise. He thanked her and left.

The Right

to Play

and

Enjoy

Youth

by

Alicia Bartolo

Benjamin Heller

Charlene Cacciattolo

Once upon a time there were two siblings, both of the age of eleven. The boy’s name was Jerry. He had to work in the field everyday to support the family. The girl’s name was Karen and she was forced to do all the housework. Their mum had died in a car accident and their dad had become an alcoholic and started taking drugs with grief.

The dad wasted all the money on drinking and he forced his children to work day and night. After the children finished working their dad would start getting angry at them because they had little food, even though they had worked all day. And eventually he started abusing them by hitting and hurting them.

Then a few months passed and the kids worked even harder. Eventually they enough money to buy a used phone. They didn’t tell their dad because they knew he would be very angry. With the phone they made a video showing their bruises and talking about what happened. Finally the police arrived behind their door a few weeks later. The dad was so angry but he couldn’t do anything because he got arrested.

The police took the children to an adoption centre where a new and loving family adopted them and took them in. Finally they got a family who loved and took care of them and Jerry and Karen could play and enjoy their youth and grow up as healthy citizens.

The Right to

Basic

Needs

by

Esai Edon

Kayden Grech

Nikolai Attard

There was a boy named Jack. His family was poor and they didn’t have much money so they lived in an alley. His parents couldn’t work because no one wanted them. But they kept on looking for work. They told their son to try to find work somewhere too.

His mother gave him the last of her money to buy some food. He didn’t want to work because he loved playing and going to school. But his mother told him that they couldn’t afford it because they didn’t have money to live on so her son didn’t have a choice even though he was only 8 years old.

Two days later, after a long search, Jack ended up in front of a farm a stone’s throw away from his alley. Jack walked in and asked the farmer to give him a job. The farmer was shocked that such a young boy came asking for a job.

He asked Jack why he wanted to work. Jack told him that he wanted to help out his family to get money. To Jack’s surprise, Farmer Tom was kind hearted. He found Jack’s family and gave them a room on his farm and gave is parents a job on the farm. Jack’s parents were hardworking and soon earned enough money to get a small apartment.

Farmer Tom’s kind gesture saved Jack’s family and they paid him with hard work. Now Jack has a home and food and can still go to school and everyday he loved helping on the farm and feeding the animals, remembering the day he started a better life.

The Right

to have

a Wholesome

Family

∼

The Right

to live in

Peace

by

Māra-Josephine Portelli

Hello! Have you ever wished to be a free bird, break your shackles and fly away? Well this little boy wanted just that. Everyone did – when the fires started ….

“Hello Jae! Good morning!” Jae woke up. “Ma?” Then he knew he was dreaming. Then he did wake up. Back to reality … though sometimes it seems more unreal than fantasies. A sound – could mean Hitler’s men. A sighting – could mean death, Basic needs did not apply to anyone – but Hitler. A year ago he was working for him – captures – put into slave labour. His parents … gone. He himself was only nine years old. Hitler was planning to attack Russia – a big move. “You know why Hitler does this right? Attack large countries?” His sister asked him “Because he wants power and to be seen powerful.” She was gone now too … They all were – he was the only one left.

What was that? “We know you’re down there!” A voice boomed. He was in a cellar he dug into. How did that man find him?

“You can’t” stay down there forever! You’re going to have to come out!” He daren’t say a word. Perhaps the man guessed. He didn’t want to confirm his suspicions. “You!” the man spoke to someone else. “Get him for me! If you fail …” There was silence. A boy started to climb down the hole he’d made. He had a feeling he wouldn’t make it. He didn’t. Let me give you a hint – he died.

The Right

to

Education

by

Elisa Camilleri

Kendra Agius

Once upon a time there was a 13-year old girl called Kayla. She was forced to work by her grandparents (who took care of her as her parents had died) because they were too old and sick to work. So instead of going to school, she worked as a maid for a rich family that owned a big business.

She had a spoiled brother named Kyle. He was very spoiled, even though his family was poor, he still begged them to buy him things that he knew he was not going to use. Since Kyle knew that his family was really poor he decided to work for the same rich family his sister worked for. He wanted to have more money to spend on silly stuff.

Kayla was having a hard time working overtime to earn as much money as she could. She worked from morning till evening without stopping.

Luckily one day her aunt came to know how badly she was being treated. She didn’t know that her niece was going through such a bad time. She felt sorry for her so she decided to adopt Kayla as her own daughter.

Kayla was so happy. Finally she could stop working and could actually go to school and learn. Finally she will work hard … but this time to achieve her dream of becoming a doctor.

The Right

to be

Protected

from

Danger

by

Jeremy Ciantar

Once there was a boy called John who lived with his parents. The week after was his birthday, but he couldn’t celebrate it or have have a cake because they were poor.

His father had a bad habit – he always got drunk and hurt John for nothing. Once it was so bad he had blood all over his face. Also John had to work everyday to earn some money for the family.

John never went to school because of work and never learned the ABC. Every time he went to work he always risked to get hurt because his work was dangerous and explosive. He worked with chemicals in a mine.

But, even though he had to go through all this, he still loved his family very much, especially his mum.

One day John went to work as usual. But this time he would not go back home. There was a terrible accident and the area where John was working exploded. He died together with the other 10 workers trapped under the rocks.

Poor John, he would never see his dream come true!