WHILE various organisations held different activities across the country to observe Day of the African Child (June 16), in Harare the Creative Writing Africa Trust in collaboration with Slum Cinema commemorated the day by screening films that had themes of the African child's plight followed by open discussion afterwards.

The event took place at Mai Musodzi Hall, Mbare, and was well attended by students from Harare High, Mbare High, St Peter's Kubatana High, youths from the community and Vision and Hope Foundation among others.

Slum Cinema Projects Co-ordinator Ethel Kabwato, a teacher by profession who is also a writer, said the economic challenges facing the African girl child today have also affected her self-esteem and leadership skills.

"We now have what are called 'forex orphans'. These are children left to cater for themselves by parents who would have migrated to other countries in search of foreign currency," she said. "In Zimbabwe we have witnessed a large number of people leaving the country for South Africa. The vulnerable children left behind are sometimes girls who end up embarking on errant means of survival."

Her organisation, Slum Cinema, seeks to enable young people to tell their stories through cinema and photography. It also holds script-writing workshops, monthly film screenings and discussion forums.

Vision and Hope Foundation, which participated in this event was formed in 2003 to empower young people between the ages of 10 and 25 years through various ways such as psycho-social support, HIV and AIDS management, school assistance, and camps.

The organisation's Community Liaison Officer Tapera Jamanda, who is also District Youth Advisor with the National Aids Council, said it is important for young people to remember their friends who perished in South Africa and why they perished.

"Even though the fateful day fell on South African soil, those children had an African cause and our children should know its importance," he said.

Eclipse, one of the films screened, was about child-headed families and the challenges that the children face. Educating Lucia portrayed a girl child whose dream to be either a computer engineer or businesswoman is shattered by lack of educational sponsorship.

Other girls who have the privilege to go to school still have to walk long distances. Lucia begins work at a farm. When at home, she fetches firewood and does all the other household chores but she dreams of working in town one day.

"I don't like working at a farm. I would rather work in town," she says. The film explores challenges faced by the girl child in getting formal education.

The third film, Stronger than Fear has the theme of migration. A boy named Solomon, gripped by the dream to overcome poverty, thinks of leaving his country. But he does so taking enormous risks. He hides in a plane destined for Switzerland. Unfortunately he freezes to death along the way.

The event was supported by the World Bank Country Office in Zimbabwe as part of its youth engagement initiatives.

Every year on June 16 the Africa honours thousands of school children who perished in the 1976 Soweto uprising as they demonstrated against low standards of education and demanded the right to be taught in their mother language.

Today, this day is used to even out issues relating to the welfare and safety of the African child and this year, the UN Millennium Campaign (Africa) called on African states, givil society organisations and the private sector to tackle child and maternal mortality, school dropouts, gender inequality in universal primary education and poor quality standards.

In a statement marking the day, the UN Millennium Campaign said: "As many as 50 000 African children under the age of five years will be losing their lives as a result of preventable or curable diseases. And as many as 38 million children of primary school age in Africa will still remain out of school."