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Swiss children mark day of rights

The Swiss interior minister, Ruth Dreifuss, met children taking part in the event Keystone

More than 5,000 Swiss children took to the streets of Swiss cities on Tuesday to mark the International Day of Children's Rights.

In a nationwide gesture of solidarity for street children around the world, school pupils spent several hours on the streets of Swiss cities and towns.

They took on tasks such as shoe shining, car washing and helping members of the public to pack their shopping bags in a bid to raise money for the Swiss charity, Terre des Hommes.

The charity is involved with projects in a number of countries that are designed to improve the conditions of young people forced live on the streets.

According to statistics published by the charity, an estimated 100 million children live on the streets around the world.

The event was staged on the anniversary of the signing of the United Nations Convention on Children’s Rights, which was adopted on November 20, 1989.

Andreas Herbst, marketing director of Terre des Hommes, said his charity hoped the event would help young Swiss to understand the plight of street children.

“They can learn that there is a harder life than just to go to school and to be cared for,” Herbst said in an interview with swissinfo.

Swiss children benefit

Herbst added that children taking part in the event could also benefit by experiencing what it is like “to clean shoes all day long, to sell small goods…and to make sure you have enough money every day to buy yourself just one piece of bread or some rice.”

But the charity also stressed that the International Day of Children’s Rights was an occasion for Swiss children to reflect on their own circumstances.

“The message is that children here have a solidarity with the children in other countries who do not have so much luck…good schools and parents who care for them,” Herbst told swissinfo.

“But the event is also [designed] to raise funds to make sure programmes run by Terre des Hommes in Benin and Bangladesh are able to function,” he added.

by Adam Beaumont and Ramsey Zarifeh

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