There is time for everything in this world. Time to laugh, time to cry, moments of dreams, bits of fragile hope and plenty of moments to develop and stay healthy. You just have to take the time!
There are also desired or imposed pause times, times for reflection, relaxation, positioning and repositioning. Time does not stop, of course, but it is possible, sometimes, and for good reasons, to suspend your flight, at least for short periods.
Time works in our favor if we know how to tame it and use it wisely.
Human beings can question everything from one day to the next, without notice, freely. He can leave, flee or even change context, for better or worse. He can even seize these moments to change the world in his own way or to give himself a mission of well-being for himself or for others in need or in a vulnerable situation.
The time has come for each of us to give ourselves time to take a step back. We live or survive in a time where everything is bad, especially for children, our children. It feels like our world and our structures are imploding. The time to change something is increasingly limited. Minutes count to save the dying planet and to put an end to the suffering of hundreds of thousands of children around the world.
Time can pause its flight to allow us to better understand and, above all, to act in favor of children.
A large number of children live trapped within their families, witnesses or victims of violence and abuse of all kinds (the figures are frightening and increase from year to year). We think of the thousands of children all over the world, injured or killed, sometimes even massacred like common cannon fodder. We are witnessing the growing number of displaced children living in atrocious conditions, without human considerations, without identity and without papers, without dignity.
Closer to home, the means put in place to properly support and protect children no longer seem to be working. The Youth Protection Department is overflowing. It no longer has the means to fulfill its ambitions or its mission; schools are incapable of fulfilling their role because they no longer have the motivation. Access to medical and social care suffers from major gaps at all levels.
It is urgent to first focus on the place of the child in our scale of societal values. Above all, we must capture all the hope that they can inspire in us to create a different, more human, more empathetic and more just world. The big change cannot be made without deep reflection and without a commitment from all of us to the best interests of children.
In the aftermath of Children’s Rights Week, we must join forces to create more suitable schools, community daycare services for all, protection mechanisms associated with living environments and access to all the tools necessary to ensure their well-being, optimal development and overall health.
The “we”, here, is you and me, these are decision and action mechanisms set up and managed by the communities, it is a pyramid of care and services based on needs and rights children, it is a global vision of common well-being for a just and harmonious society. Which heroes will have the chance to decide on these new paradigms of support for children and young people? The place is free, bets are open!