Twenty six children between the ages of 12 and 18 assembled for five days at the Girl Guides Association training center to learn about children’s rights and how to express their issues through drawing and animation.

The trainer Diaa Malaeb showing the teens how to sketch the scenarios before cutting them into shapes. Photo by Fatima Al-Ajel

The boy was fourteen years old. He was not good in school and kept failing classes. His father was a strict and violent man who punished the boy severely. When the grade results came and the boy realized he had failed for the third time, he hid his report card under the living room sofa and buried himself in his bed in fear of his father’s wrath. When his father came in later and noticed the card, he went mad with anger and hit the boy who cried and promised he would leave the house and never return. He stormed out of the house and as he walked the streets he found an older acquaintance that had a bad reputation. The two boys walked together until they saw some goods on a cart that had been left unattended by its owner when he went inside the mosque to pray. The older boy instructed the other to steal the goods. He was caught and handed over to the juvenile court on theft charges.

This was the scenario the protection committee of eight children created for the animation clip they produced as part of the children’s rights training last week.

“We do not interfere in the story no matter how irrational and despite the gaps in structure. We only show them how to create two dimensional images of the story’s characters,” said Diaa Malab, a Save the Children regional communication officer who had come from Beirut to train children on self expression through animation. “We help them with the distances and sizes, and then we help them make animated short films, or what we call ‘spots,’ with the shapes they created,” she added.

The children voiced the dialogues while they moved the shapes, then during production, cut the parts where their hands were visible. The end product was a simple animation describing the stories.

Mohammed Asda is a fourteen year old boy who voiced the part of the main character in the protection committee story. “He is my age. I have not seen violence as such, but I have heard stories of boys and girls who become depressed when their parents don’t treat them kindly. We want to tell the adults and people responsible for children’s welfare that children have the right to be protected from violence and abuse.”

The invented story is not very far from reality, as Ala Al-Amri, another participant in the protection committee, explained. He said in his own neighborhood there was a boy named Rif’at whose father was abusive and told him that if he got a bad grade he would kill him. When results came out, the boy ran away from home leaving a note behind saying “I am going to leave the whole world for you and finally find peace.”

Participants creating the scenery by cutting colored paper into shapes. Photo by Fatima Al-Ajel

“This happened more than two months ago,” related Eftekar Al-Shamiri, a facilitator in the workshop and a project officer with Save the Children in Yemen. “The boy was in the sixth grade and his father regretted his behavior deeply. We reported it the police and posted his pictures on buses and public places, but up till now he is nowhere to be found.”

The animation program is a regional program that was previously implemented in Palestine, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia and now Yemen. Save the Children had created similar animation projects with disadvantaged groups in Yemen back in 2006 in conjunction with the disability association Al-Tahadi and with Iraqi refugees in Yemen. The films were supposed to be broadcasted on Yemen TV yet only the disability animation was shown. The other was termed too controversial and is still waiting to be broadcast by the Yemen TV authority.

“The point behind this project is to enable children to express themselves without having to go face to face with others,” said Fatima Al-Ajel, communications and advocacy officer at Save the Children Sweden-Yemen Program. “They can feel safe representing their own issues through fictional characters while in essence they are talking about themselves. We also teach them about the International Child Rights Convention, what rights they have as children and how to demand these rights.”

The right to participate and the right to education

The second group of ten participants decided they wanted their story to be about the right to participate in decision making. They chose the story of a girl who was married off at a young age without her consent.

“She was only fourteen years old and was happily coming home to show off her high grades to her parents when her father told her matter-of-factly that she is getting married soon,” narrated Suhail Abu Esba’. “She cried and objected but her point of view was not important to them. She was forced into marriage because the groom was rich. In their first days together the husband was hitting her and kept telling her how he bought her with his money like an object. She was miserable.”

The idea came to the group from their teammate Abdulkarim Al-Ja’adi who had seen this happen to his neighbor’s daughter. “I think he is divorced now, but I remember that the girl was so unhappy to be married and that she had been good in school,” he said.

The idea most emphasized by the group was that children should be given the right to have a say in general and especially regarding their own issues. “People don’t consider us as complete human beings with thoughts and ideas and opinions. They just say, oh, they are kids what do they know… we do know, we know a lot, and we want our right to have a say,” passionately insisted 12 year-old Wiam Naser Al-Duba’e as she jumped excitedly. Wiam was the youngest participant in the training.

Making the shapes move while the camera is recording before adding the voice and adjusting the montage. YT Photo by Nadia Al-Sakkaf

The third group focused on the right to education. They were lucky to have Fadi Al-Harb in their group with a talent for drawing. “It doesn’t really matter if the children can draw or not because it is not a competition and we are not looking to produce animation as such,” said Diaa Malab. “We are helping the children find a way to express themselves as well as create an advocacy tool to form public opinion and laws promoting children’s rights.”

The story from the education committee was about a boy who liked to study but his father wanted him to work as a mechanic in the family’s car workshop. One day while the boy was sweating and his hands were full of car grease, a paper was blown into the workshop by the wind. The paper was article 28 of the international convention for child rights which read:

“States’ parties recognize the right of the child to education and make primary education compulsory and available free to all; encourage the development of different forms of secondary education, make higher education accessible to all on the basis of capacity by every appropriate means; states’ parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that school discipline is administered in a manner consistent with the child’s human dignity. States’ parties shall promote and encourage international cooperation in matters relating to education, in particular with a view to contributing to the elimination of ignorance and illiteracy…”

Lila Al-Kumaim, 13, explained the scenario and the dramatic end with the boy looking at a difficult dirt road ahead of him, symbolizing his challenging journey as a child with no rights into a gloomy future.

“Now that we learned how to express ourselves through drawing and animation we will teach others and make them come here to the center,” she said.

Nujood Ja’adan, 16, explained that because of her disability her family discouraged her from continuing her education after the third grade. “They said it would be cumbersome to go to school and a waste of time for a girl like me. Now that I am older I fought their decision and I am back at school. I have wasted valuable years but what matters now is that I am building my abilities and am aware of my rights and how to demand them,” she said.

Generation for change

The 26 participants decided that they would come back again to the center and create new animations, especially because Save the Children is leaving the equipment in the care of the Girl Guides Association. They promised to spread the world around, and through small booklets they have been given describing their rights as children from the International Child Rights Convention, they promised to convey these rights to their friends and family.

“I tell children about their rights, and when they face challenges such as oppressive parents or circumstances that prevent them from being educated, I encourage them not to give up,” said Maryam Al-Razam, 15.

“My father and grandfather see things very differently from the way I see them today. Each generation has its own conceptions and priorities. Education for our generation is an issue of survival and not a luxury like in my grandfather’s time,” said Fadi Al-Harb, 18.

“Ignorance is overwhelming many of our parents. They mean well, but they don’t know how much they are hurting us by not giving us our rights. I forgave my parents but I can’t forget that I am 16 and still in the fourth grade,” explained Nujood Ja’adan. The trainer Diaa Malaeb was very impressed with the participating children’s enthusiasm and ability to work together so closely although they just came to know each other during the workshop.

“Even during the scenario explaining a particular right, the children indirectly emphasized other rights. For example, the child’s right to a fair trial in a specialized court was brought up as well as their right to explain themselves in front of a judge as in the protection group’s story,” explained Malaeb.

Although the training was only for five days and concluded last Thursday, in essence it is endless because the participants can visit the center and use the material to create countless animations.

“We told them that they can bring their friends and teach them how to create animations,” said Fatima Al-Ajel. “We are sure that this group will be the start of a larger one that will spread across the country. We chose the 26 participants from our partner organizations with certain criteria such as an interactive nature and an ability or interest in drawing. These children will now become trainers for other, and definitely agents for change,” she concluded.