Media Voices for Children Vol. III

MEDIA VOICES VOLUME THREE 2020

CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS Kamiah Gardner Joy Harjo Lucian Hatfield Melissa Knowles Petra Lent McCarron Georgia Morris Len Morris Valeria Popolizio Jake Skrzypiec Dan Wildcat ART DIRECTOR AND EDITOR Morgan Keyt 2 / M E DIA VO IC E S

MVC FROM THE EDITOR

SINCE THE LAST EDITION of this magazine, I have spent a significant amount of my time reading, reflecting, and protesting. I have stood on the corner of Main Street in my town listening to speakers, supporting the people of color in my community and watching cars drive by blasting racist folk songs. It wasn’t the counterprotesters or the stories of injustice that broke my heart, however. Those just succeeded in making me angrier. It was the kids who brought tears to my eyes.

It was the little boy in front of me, who couldn’t have been more than three, with his fist in the air staring at his mom because he could see she was crying and couldn’t figure out why. It was the high school girl with a sign that said “Am I next?” It was the daughter of the organizer who should have been learning Tik Toks with her friends but spent her summer learning to march and to watch out for cars that might try and drive into the crowd.

In 2008, Media Voices had the honor of interviewing Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu. In this time of social and emotional upheaval, I have found myself referring back to the transcript of that interview on many occasions. When it feels as if everything is spinning out of control, it is comforting to refer back to the wisdom of our heroes.

The Archbishop’s words resonate greatly with me, I’d like to share a few of them with you.

“In the end, we are going to realize, you know, that to be indifferent to the suffering of another is not just cruel,” Tutu said. “It is actually the worst thing you can do to yourself, because our humanity is bound up with one another’s, and whether I like it or not, what happens to you even though I may not be able immediately to realize it, what happens to you inexorably affects me. If you are dehumanized, I may be totally indifferent to it, but somehow or other I am less of a human being than I would otherwise have been.”

We cannot continue to ignore the injustices people around us are facing. Our country is literally and figuratively on fire. Kids have become the heroes fighting back, but they shouldn’t have to be. “Remember these are not figures on a page,” said Tutu. “These are children of flesh and blood. Think of your own child.”

MORGAN KEYT Morgan is the Art Director and Editor for Media Voices Magazine and an MVC board member.

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MVC UPDATE 4 / M E DIA VO IC E S

PHOTO BY MELISSA KNOWLES

IN 25 YEARS OF DOING THIS WORK, Len Morris, the co-founder of Media Voices, has witnessed countless atrocities worldwide. Those close to him can attest that not one has slowed him down. In fact, each has only pushed him to work harder in the fight for children worldwide. They can also confirm that Len is very rarely quiet for any amount of time. 2020 and the COVID-19 pandemic have done the impossible; Len Morris is at a loss for words.

Despite the stress that we are all feeling, the Media Voices team has continued tirelessly in the pursuit of children’s rights. In three states, over many zoom calls and hundreds of e-mails , our progress looks different than we expected, but it is progress nonetheless.

First and foremost, we adjusted our Kenyan Schoolhouse Program to ensure that each student whose school fees we cover has access to food, shelter and the necessary technologies to continue their education. We are proud to say that our program was recognized by the African Network for the Prevention and Protection against Child Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN) for our efforts to reduce the stress the pandemic has put on the students and their families.

Here in the United States, with support from the NEAG Foundation and many private donors, Abby Remer and Melissa Knowles completed a full study guide that accompanies Children of Bal Ashram and provides teachers with resources and tools that are going to complement and enrich the way the film is experienced in a classroom.

We created a place for teachers and students to access the study guide, learning materials and our full children’s rights curriculum. Clayton Schneider joined our team over the course of the quarantine and worked with co-founders Len and Petra to develop and launch our new website www.learnchildrights.org.

Len also moderated a Human Trafficking panel sponsored by Freeland. It featured founder of Freeland Steve Galster, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Kailash Satyarthi, Executive Director of the Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation Anjali Kochar and the CEO of GoodWeave Nina Smith.

This has been a year unlike any other.

However, we continue to stand for children’s rights in the United States and worldwide. Thank you for supporting our efforts.

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HONORING Who sings to the plants That are grown for our plates?

Are they gathered lovingly In aprons or arms?

Or do they suffer the fate Of the motor-driven whip Of the monster reaper?

No song at all, only The sound of money Being stacked in a bank Who stitched the seams in my clothes One line after another?

Was the room sweaty and dark With no hour to spare?

Did she have enough to eat?

Did she have a home anywhere?

Or did she live on the floor?

And where were the children?

Or was the seamstress the child With no home of his or her own?

Who sacrifices to make clothes For strangers of another country?

And why?

Let’s remember to thank the grower of food The picker, the driver, The sun and the rain.

Let’s remember to thank each maker of stitch And layer of pattern, The dyer of color In the immense house of beauty and pain.

Let’s honor the maker.

Let’s honor what’s made.

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JOY HARJO is an internationally renowned performer and writer of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and was named the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States in 2019.

The author of nine books of poetry, several plays and children’s books, and a memoir, “Crazy Brave,” her many honors include the Ruth Lily Prize for Lifetime Achievement from the Poetry Foundation, the Academy of American Poets Wallace Stevens Award, a PEN USA Literary Award, Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Fund Writers’ Award, a Rasmuson US Artist Fellowship, two NEA fellowships, and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Harjo is a chancellor of the Academy of American Poets and is a founding board member of the Native Arts and Cultures Foundation. She lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where she is a Tulsa Artist Fellow.

“Honoring” is reprinted with permission from the publisher W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. from AMERICAN SUNRISE Copyright 2019, poems by Joy Harjo BIO COURTESY OF https://www.joyharjo.com/

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ART BY NICOLE GOLDSTEIN

A Vision:

The Hiawatha center for Justice Promoting Dialogue, Research and Problem Solving.

BY DR. DANIEL R. WILDCAT WHAT DOES JUSTICE LOOK LIKE? What does it feel like? Do we share a common definition of justice?

Fundamental questions about how all areas of our lives - economic, criminal justice, education, housing, health care, the arts, etc. - work or don’t work now revolve around the question of justice. The fact that it has taken half a century since Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech to bring justice front and center in the USA again, tells us how entrenched the ideological, organizational and physical obstacles are to the systemic change many citizens in the United States have taken to the streets to demand.

The vast majority of the problems we face today revolve around injustice and an increasing number of Americans understand this fact.

The sheer horror and obscenity of the deadly police and vigilante violence against Black men and women, finally forced a rainbow multitude of people into the streets.

Yet, as crucial as this recognition is, the recognition is relatively easy compared to the difficult work of creating institutions that produce justice in the face of institutions producing long-standing systemic injustice.

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As our streets empty and return to normal, difficult discussions will be necessary if real systemic change is to occur: discussions that will be painful and sometimes down right hurtful, if actions are to take the place of worn-out platitudes about USA exceptionalism. Difficult discussions require time to develop and places where they can be advanced.

two decades due to its aging infrastructure and decaying interior, serves as a sad symbol of the neglect of the ideals of peace, justice and responsibility its namesake promoted. It is clear the time has come for Hiawatha Hall to undergo a major physical renovation and a spiritual rejuvenation befitting its namesake.

In the Heartland of the USA there is a place, Haskell Indian Nations University, situated to become a center for the difficult discussions, research and problem-solving needed today.

Recent events have demonstrated there may be no more important touchstone for the work Indigenous Peoples and all people on the planet undertake now than the work for justice. The Covid-19 pandemic, the murders of Black and brown people by law enforcement officers, the still uncounted missing and murdered Indigenous women (MMIW), the plagues of poverty, racism and sexism – all – make clear that much work must be done to create institutions where justice is systemically produced.

In the center of the Haskell campus sits historic Hiawatha Hall: a beautiful building named for an Onondaga man, Haionwhatha (Hiawatha), determined to live in peace during a time of violence, war and fear among the tribal nations of the Haudenosaunee, commonly known as the Iroquois.

Hiawatha Hall, sitting unusable for

We are now facing extremely complex societal and environmental problems, what some scientists and engineers now call “wicked” problems for their complexity. These “wicked” problems, as diverse and varied as they are, all share a common feature: the most palpable and painful experiences of these

At least problems are felt by people who are the recipients of deep historically rooted institutionalized and systemic injustices.

Few people treat words as seriously and reverently as the First Peoples of this land. Yet, we know good words, wise words, as important and powerful as they are, are insufficient to address the systemic and institutionalized injustices that permeate major societal institutions. Consequently, the Hiawatha Center for Justice will be a place for research and problem-solving open to ordinary people, community members, scholars, scientists, artists and public and private sector leaders ready to participate in the hard problem-solving work around the issue of justice – in all its forms and manifestations.

In a society where, as NOAA scientist Roger Pulwarty reminds us, “The world has problems and universities have departments,” the problem of knowledge and expertise embedded in specialized disciplinary silos is a disservice to all.

The HCJ will organize its work around interand trans-disciplinary approaches to problem solving. Drawing on Indigenous philosophies and worldviews that never thought in boxes and silos, but understood the world in terms of complex relations and processes, the HCJ will focus on ancient Indigenous ways of thinking about the problems of Justice in order to develop practical solutions to “wicked” problems besetting us.

1/4

of Native Americans live

in poverty, the highest poverty rate of any racial group in the United States.

On many reservations, unemployment exceeds

40%.

U.S. Commission on Civil Rights

Fewer than

1/2

of the homes on

reservations are connected to public sewer systems, and

16%

lack

indoor plumbing.

National Congress of American Indians (NCAI)

40%

of on-reservation

housing is considered substandard (compared to 6% outside of Indian Country) and nearly

1/3

of homes

on reservations are overcrowded.

National Congress of American Indians (NCAI)

American Indians and Alaska Natives life expectancy is

HIAWATHA HALL

4.4

years less than

other U.S. citizens.

University of Northern Arizona, Center For American Indian Resilience

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human rights and justice issues.

Yet, in spite of the devastating social statistics and the systemic attacks on our Indigenous identities and nations, wisdom continues to reside in the places and Peoples of this land. The HCJ will undertake its activities not only as a right to do so, but first and foremost as an inalienable responsibility our leaders and wisdom-keepers have to develop human maturity and dignity in a world increasingly marked by human immaturity and degradations.

The apocryphal statement, often attributed to Einstein, states, “One cannot fix problems with the same kind of thinking that created them.” The HCJ will operate on a foundation of Indigenous wisdom, teachings, and practices. It is time to seriously explore different ways of understanding the world humankind shares with each other, and the other life on this planet. It is time to step back from the one-size-fits-all approach to problem solving and instead draw on the incredible ecological and cultural diversity that marks this beautiful Mother Earth.

While the Center’s first responsibility will be to address the injustice in our own tribal nations’ realities, we recognize that unless things improve in the larger society, our lives will also suffer.

Given the trail of broken treaties that has led us to unconscionable social statistics, few would challenge our right to detail

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grievances and challenge the systemic injustice we, the First Peoples of this land, experience daily: The disproportionately high negative impact of the Covid-19 virus on American Indian reservations speaks directly to the systemic nature of health-related

The HCJ will operate on the principle Hawaiian elder M. Kalani Souza is fond of reminding us, “Some minds are always better than one mind.” HCJ will challenge participants in its activities to see the multiple dimensions of injustice and hence justice. Above all else, as we tackle the tangled web of relations that produce injustice in its varied manifestations, e.g., housing, healthcare, education, criminal justice systems, etc. we acknowledge that for many in our society injustice is palpable and a deeply felt daily experience.

Join us and invest in a future where the age of the Anthropocene is not so named because of destructive changes humankind is bringing to our Mother Earth, but for a period where we began to take the time and find one place, hopefully among many, where we began to think deeply about the creation of justice as the most important systemic challenge we now face on this beautiful blue and green planet. Let us take Sitting Bull’s advice: Let us put our minds together and see what life we can make for our children.”

As diversity scholar and trainer, Dr. Eddie Moore, Jr. often states, “It’s time to call people in – not call people out.” If you want to envision, dream and imagine Justice in its fullest bloom, and be a part of the hard work to root-out the destructive, violent and debilitating cost of systemic injustice and develop public and private institutions that systemically promote justice as opposed to comfortably perpetuating injustice, join us in making the Hiawatha Center for Justice a reality.

I am calling you in from the four sacred directions across the landscapes and seascapes of this Mother Earth – we need partners, collaborators, and friends willing to invest in something different: radical exercises of Indigenous ingenuity or Indigenuity.

DANIEL R. WILDCAT is a Yuchi member of the Muscogee Nation of Oklahoma. His service as teacher and administrator at Haskell spans 34 years.

Dr. Wildcat received B.A. and M.A. degrees in sociology from the University of Kansas and an interdisciplinary Ph.D. from the University of Missouri at Kansas City. He helped form a partnership with the Hazardous Substance Research Center at Kansas State University to create the Haskell Environmental Research Studies (HERS) Center as a non-profit Native American research center. He is also the author and editor of several books, including his most recent book, Red Alert: Saving the Planet with Indigenous Knowledge. He is a co-author on the Southern Great Plains chapter of the Fourth National Climate Assessment.

83%

of American

Indian and Alaska Native adults (83 percent) have experienced some form of violence in their lifetime.

Nation Institute of Justice

More than

2 in 5

American Indian

and Alaska Native female victims reported being physically injured, and almost half reported needing medical care and legal services.

38%

were unable to

receive necessary services.

Nation Institute of Justice

American Indian/Alaska Natives (AI/AN) have the highest rates of

suicide

of any racial/ethnic group in the United States. A 2015 study found the suicide rate among AI/AN

3.5

times higher than

racial/ethnic groups with the lowest suicide rates.

Center for Disease Control

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A RIpple of Hope WHY HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION IS NEEDED NOW MORE THAN EVER

BY JAKE SKRZYPIEC THERE HAS BEEN AN AWAKENING. Have you felt it?

informing us of the next seemingly earth-shattering event that has transpired. We navigate our day, seeking normalcy and routine in a global environment that provides less and less each passing hour. We try to make sense of what we see before us: social unrest, eroding moral values, and degrading demagoguery; viruses that have long plagued our national and global arenas but are just now being truly recognized for what they are.

This “sense-making” is an enormous challenge for adults.

Imagine what it looks like through the eyes of our youth.

different way. They don’t turn away from the pings, they face them head on.

MVC Anyone who is a film buff like myself might recognize these words as hailing from the most recent Star Wars Trilogy. Despite their mythic nature, I believe these words truly encapsulate our current moment.

WE ARE FRACTURED. We are split and splintered, like a cracked mirror, divided along not only racial, cultural and social identities, but along the fault lines of our humanity. We awake each morning regularly bombarded with the inevitable pings of tweets and texts

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PHOTOS BY MELISSA KNOWLES

And yet, these days the kids seem to get it more than the adults. They grapple with it in a

We have a responsibility to meet this willingness, this surge of “ready to go” energy, with an equally powerful force that gives young people the tools and the skills to make sense of the fracturing around them. In 2015, our team of teachers at Manchester High School, a large diverse public high school in Connecticut, gathered together to design a new course intended to broaden the life skills of each of our students. After assessing the needs of our young people, we made the consequential decision to reorient our efforts to design an academic experience focused on

educating students through the lens of human rights.

Our team brought unique insight to the table; a diverse coalition of first year teachers, tenured educators, instructional coaches and pre-service graduate interns.

We determined that a course experience that strived to educate students about, for and through human rights (UNDHRET, 2011) was to be the guiding principle of our work.

Students were to not only learn about global human rights issues, but were to enter a classroom environment each day that promoted mutual respect and diverse perspectives (through human rights) while also engendering young people to live out human rights in their daily life (for human rights).

The end result was a semester-long learning experience that challenged students through rigorous inquiry, meaningful discourse and critical learning projects.

In the last five years, Human Rights at Manchester High School has evolved at lightning speed. Curriculum has been modified, adapted and refined numerous times over. Twenty year teachers have sat shoulder to shoulder with first year teachers to collaborate on the design and direction of the class, adding their unique lesson ideas and instructional methods to the course. Students have had opportunities to attend and lead workshops, interact with activists and politicians, and engage in chances to take their education to the next level. Every student takes Human Rights as part of their graduation requirements, cementing our schoolwide value that human rights education is critical to the schooling of our emerging young citizens.

In essence, Human Rights has become a core part of the MHS experience. Our team of teacher colleagues have invested fully in this important work; we believe in it. We do not hold back; we confront teaching human rights without apology or compromise.

More than anything, the kids have begun to take what they have learned, and stand up.

I have seen young people reticent to express themselves at the beginning of the semester speak up against injustice by the end. I have seen young people find the courage to sit down with a peer of an opposing or abrasive view, only to find middle ground and shift that person’s mindset a few minutes later. I have seen young people demand better school policy and practice, sitting side by side with administrators and educators to rethink how we create equitable spaces of learning. I have seen young people lead with conviction, working to build an intersectional movement and successfully change a discriminatory school mascot, while at the same time renewing the faith of a school community that positive, inclusive advocacy can make a difference. I have seen young adults, who just a few years prior were unsure, fragile silhouettes of themselves, emerge as confident, informed, “ready to make sense of the world” defenders of dignity and

justice. I have seen hope; hope that through robust, rigorous yet engaging experiences in classrooms centered around equity, empathy, critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and democratic discourse, education can be a force of good in an otherwise fractured world.

The Children’s Rights Convention, a framework adopted by most nations of the world (unfortunately, not the United States) enshrines a right to education as a pivotal necessity for anyone under the age of 18. It calls upon leaders and citizens to design education that develops a child’s full personality, and ensure the “preparation of the child for responsible life in a free society,” (CRC, 1989). I can think of no better call to action than this.

To the teachers, administrators, superintendents, professors, community leaders, activists and young people reading this, think about the power human rights education can have on your schools. Think about the transformative work that we all agree needs to be done to address the inequities and social ills of our time. This is a solution.

Fearing what could be can no longer be an option, there is simply too much at stake. We need bold strokes; this can be the first strike of the pen. It is time, now more than ever, to meet the challenge that the Children’s Rights Convention sets out for us.

There has been an awakening.

The kids have felt it. When will we?

JAKE SKRZYPIEC is a human rights educator based in Connecticut.

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Children of Color the Artistic Movement Towards Self Sustainability

LUCIAN HATFIELD

INCOME INEQUALITY, in its most basic form, refers to the disparity in the distribution of income amongst the population. It often arises from a miniscule population of the area holding (and withholding) a significant quantity of that income. Communities of Black, Indigenous and people of color are overwhelmingly subjected to the negative effects of income inequality. So what changes can be made to benefit the thousands of children in New England that this does and will continue to affect?

Every problem creates more problems. In this case, the application of redlining directly hinders the opportunities available to POC, and in turn children of color. It marks certain areas as less desirable and therefore encourages banks to refuse things like mortgages and loans to minority groups, consequently halting any ability for forward movement economically for individuals or the community as a whole. This means that schools will be of a lower quality simply because the property taxes that fund them will be lower and therefore resources that “better” schools are easily able to acquire become out of reach.

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The point? These schools that have been put at a disadvantage because of racist and classist city planning do not have the budget or materials to be consistent places for children to prepare themselves for life and get exposed to programs such as art and music, as these are often the first programs to get cut out of curriculum. Even with a dedicated staff of educators, the simple lack of resources means the possibility of distribution of any art-based textbooks or new musical instruments gets extinguished before students can even decide if it is a path that would be suitable for them.

THE SOLUTION? CHILDREN OF COLOR NEED MORE COMMUNITY ART PROGRAMS. Not just that, they need to be exposed to other artists that look like them, who live like them, who see the world through the lens they do. The recent upsurge of the Black Lives Matter movement has forced people of all backgrounds to come to terms with the disadvantages children of color are born into. By reallocating funds into nonprofits that seek to create new experiences and safe spaces for children

of color, we would be able to supply them with art supplies, mentors, and direction.

LET’S PAINT AN IMAGE. A child gets out of school and walks two blocks down to the local community art center. They sign in, say hello, and gather supplies for the day’s project. The project? Painting a mural on the wall of a local business that reopened after a recent fire.

Applying a few coats of paint to a burned wall may seem simple, but it’s actually the beginning of a self-sustaining urban community, in this instance, led by the children.

That’s one image.

Another could involve a concert put on by aspiring young musicians, or a food drive where youth members are tasked with creating the most enticing flyer to encourage donations. Not only are the students being given direction and resources, they’re being given a chance.

Solutions are only birthed through urgency, through necessity, and through creativity. Creativity can only be stimulated through nurturing the artistic muscle. When will it become acceptable and accessible for all communities to pursue art and use their creative spirits to work through obstacles? The children will always be the future, but when will we allow all of them to flower? When will we stop them from fixing our problems and grant them the ability to focus on their lives, as they so deserve?

LUCIAN HATFIELD is a

filmmaker and musician who uses his mediums to highlight social issues and discuss mental health.

PHOTOS TAKEN BY CHILDREN AND CURATED BY MELISSA KNOWLES

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IS THIS MADE BY CHILDREN?

By Melissa Knowles

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actions, including our latest initiative, antra interactive study guide for use in cking. middle and high school classrooms.

Supported by the NEAG Here at Media Voices for Foundation, Chilthedren, Human Rights Institute this question guides ourat the University Connecticut, the Dodd activities,of including our latest Center, the International Labor Affairs initiative, an interactive study Bureau of Labor, guide of forthe use Department in middle and high and the Child Labor Coalition, the school classrooms. Supported by study guide will become available the NEAG Foundation, e Human to schools print and online this Rightsin Institute at University of Fall, and help teachers create a virtual Connecticut, e Dodd Center, e classroom in children’s rights.

International Labor A airs Bureau

KAILASH IS SATYARTHI, the co-recipient IS MADE BY CHILDREN? of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014, and Kailash Satyarthi, the co-recipient his wife Sumedha, also a relentless of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014, child rights crusader in India, ask and his wife Sumedha, alsous a to promise that whatever eat, wear, in relentless child we rights crusader use, and buy, first question: India,we ask us to promise that whatever we eat, wear, use, and buy, “Is this made by question: children?” we rst “Is this made by children?”

Who makes our cherished cup of cup of Who makes our cherished morning coffee, morningor coour ee,children’s or our children’s Halloween chocolates?

Who grows Halloween chocolates?

Who our cotton, our tobacco and our grows our cotton, our tobacco vegetables? mines the Who rare mines andWho our vegetables? metals used our electronics, theelecthe in rare metals used in our gravel used in global building tronics, the gravel usedprojects, in global often funded by governments and by building projects, o en funded international lenders, and or even the governments international tombstone marble use bury lenders, or we even theto tombstone those we marble love? we use to bury those we love?

Quite likely one of the 152.1 million child laborers Quiteworldwide, likely one of73 themillion 152.1 of whom aremillion working the worst forms childinlaborers worldwide, of child labor, and the who 73 million who10 aremillion working in the are forcedworst into forms what we call labor, modern of child and 10 slavery ormillion human trafficking. who are forced into what PHOTO BY ROBIN ROMANO we call modern slavery or human of the Department of Labor, and Children ofCoalition, Bal Ashram Study Here at Media Voices for Children, this The e Child Labor the study uses our most recent question is at the forefront of all of our Guide guide will become available to schools in print and online this Fall, and help teachers create a virtual classroom in children’s rights.

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documentary as its primary resource to take teachers and students on a journey into the world of children from forced labor to the healing they find at the Bal Ashram sanctuary and other child-friendly villages, through to their evolution as political activists.

This study guide combines various media from our archives— video clips, online photography exhibitions, reports and stories from the field, as well as resources, links, and best practice programs to empower youth today as conscious consumers of tomorrow.

It also draws attention to child labor in the United States at the turn of the 20th century, and on U.S. farms today.

A clear double standard exists in U.S. federal law (and a legal loophole that places the U.S. in violation of its international legal obligations) and hundreds of thousands of children under the age of 18 labor in more hazardous conditions than child workers in any other industry.

The study guide takes us from such abominable customs to the Bharat Yatra in India, a nationwide march covering 11,000 kilometers over 36

days, led by children making a clarion call to “Make India Safe Again for Children.” Solutions, like these, are emerging, and since 2013 there are a 100 million fewer children working in the world today. The global pandemic, however, with school closures and lost family income, is pushing more and more children into the labor force.

What we consume matters beyond the immediate context of our lives.

Nothing is so utterly detestable a factor of our commercial life, as child labor and slavery. The poor, the innocent and the powerless do not have to pay for our lifestyles! Sumedha Satyarthi reminds us that child labor is a relatively new thing in human affairs; ancient records have no such infamy. So let’s learn to use our spending power to help change the world. Let’s raise our voices, save lives, and restore stolen childhoods.

MELISSA KNOWLES

is a photographer, curator and arts educator who has worked with MVC for the past three years. Her exhibits encourage creative solutions, providing a powerful platform for advocacy and healing.

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MVC Nairobi Is Hot.

BY GEORGIA MORRIS

NAIROBI IS HOT. What’s your name? I ask him. (He speaks four languages.)

“Emmanuel.”

He has grabbed my hand and his filth and sweat blend with mine. I think of the antibacterial gel in the van and a wave of shame floods me. We are finishing a documentary about street children and Kenya is the last shoot.

The small 13-year-old drops my hand to feel my hair. He is stoned on glue, belligerent, pulling me, and demands, “I want to go to school right now.”

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PHOTOS BY ROBIN ROMANO

DONATE Our crew is scheduled to shoot in a shelter for street kids and on the way we have gained a throng, Emmanuel selecting me to maul and work over as we walk. When we get to the packed day “shelter,” we learn they have no funds for food, no furniture, and all they can offer is water from a spigot. The noise is deafening.

But the overworked volunteers do not chase the kids away.

The next day we meet Dorcas and her baby Judy at Kenyatta Market.

Dorcas is a child with a baby. She proudly shows us the top of her daughter’s head above her wrapped blanket.

We are interviewing the head boy, a teenager who leads this band of homeless kids. We buy groceries for them all and they ask when we are coming back.

The next day when we come back two little girls tell us Baby Judy is sick and Dorcas has moved into the hospital. Dorcas’s baby’s illness has created a temporary home for her. The other girls are a bit wistful. They rush us to the hospital just across the road. Baby Judy is dead and Dorcas has run away.

Children having babies, boys roving in bands. This is life on the street in just about every country on earth, including

our own. The circumstances may be different. In the U.S., many of the kids are runaways, spotted for their vulnerability and lured into sex trafficking, which of course happens in every country.

Disasters, war, refugee camps, plagues and simple hunger can all drive orphans and abandoned children to the streets and there is a moment in each child’s life when the bonds made there and the stress of recovering can defeat a child.

Emmanuel got an opportunity to finally leave the streets and go to a boarding schoolan opportunity for a new life. He took it and tried. But at 13 it was too late. The draws of his family on the street were too strong to sever.

Emmanuel left through the gate that welcomed him and could never be found.

For the over one hundred million children living on the streets of the world right now, there is a window of time that can save them. Global resources have to be able to offer them all more than a few hours of daylight shelter and a cup of water from the spigot.

They are all our children.

GEORGIA MORRIS

is a member of the Writer’s Guild of America and a Media Voices for Children board member.

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PHOTO BY MELISSA KNOWLES

The need for Urgency

BY VALERIA POPOLIZIO

THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC has resulted in bringing issues of inequity and human rights violations to the forefront of many household discussions. Data has shown that Black, Indigenous, and communities of color are disproportionately affected by coronavirus largely due to environmental racism.

A group that is oftentimes left out of these discussions are those who have been displaced into detention centers. Additional to any pre-existing conditions that

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make them more susceptible to contracting the virus, the poor conditions reported within detention centers increase their risk greatly.

mediate the outbreak of coronavirus within the centers.

The inhumane treatment of migrants in detention centers, the separation of families, and missing children have resulted in demands to know the truth of what is currently happening in these facilities. Immigration and child activists are fighting for proper data collection and the release of children and families to prevent and

Detention Center Conditions

WHAT WE KNOW

Overcrowding at detention centers has been an issue since long before the COVID-19 pandemic. Multiple images of children sleeping in cages have circled around social media platforms.

Reports detail the lack of medical care and overall negligence regarding the

health and safety of those forced into detention centers.

Over a year ago, images were released showing an overflow of families detained at the Customs and Border Protection facility in McAllen, Texas. There was not enough space for people inside the facility; people were sleeping in crowded tents or outside on the dirt.

When journalists visited another center, they were under the impression that conditions were much better; people were being fed, had access to toiletries, and children did not seem to be in distress. However, there is speculation that this was all just a show. Recording equipment is not allowed in these facilities, meaning as outsiders, we may never know the full extent of what inhuman treatment those in detention centers actually face.

Rising rates of COVID-19 According to a report by the Center for Migration Studies, in August there were 4,038 people across ICE facilities who contracted COVID-19.

The reality is, even if Center for Disease Control standards were set in place, they could not be fully executed because of the already unhealthy conditions within the facilities.

ICE facilities are breeding grounds for outbreaks of COVID-19. Rates found in

centers have increased exponentially since midMarch. It is speculated that these numbers are actually low compared to the reality, as there is insufficient testing within the centers.

Protection of Children in Detention Centers In 1985, Jenny Flores (a minor from El Salvador) was placed and mistreated in a detention center – this led to the Flores Agreement Settlement. The settlement obligates officials to release children within 20 days to family or authorized programs that accept custody of them. It also requires authorities to protect children by providing them with food and livable, healthy conditions.

Since the beginning of the Trump Administration, there have been numerous violations of the agreement.

There have been reports of children being detained for months on end, the separation of families, as well as mental and sexual abuse.

Due to the public health risk exacerbated by the conditions within detention facilities, California Judge Dolly Gee set a July 27 deadline for when ICE must release children who are detained.

The deadline has long passed and children have not been released. Releasing parents who are also detained is clearly in the best interests of the children; however, as that is not specifically stated

within the Flores Settlement Agreement, this has caused a halt on negotiations to safely release children.

THE NEED FOR URGENCY The creation and monetization of detention centers is a fragment of the Prison Industrial Complex.

The Trump Administration might have not been the one to create it, but it was vastly expanded during his presidency. President Trump and politicians who support anti-immigrant policies failed the protection of child and family rights by forcibly separating them, refusing to accept those who sought refuge, and placing them in inhumane conditions.

Now with the added risks of a COVID-19 world, there is a lack of urgency in releasing children to safe locations. This pandemic has made it clear that money and exploitation is of a much greater importance to the United States government than protecting lives. Social distancing policies and more handwashing stations is not enough to combat this public health emergency; proactive change can only happen when the rights of these children and families are protected.

VALERIA POPOLIZIO Valeria Popolizio is an intern at MVC and will be attending Georgetown in the fall.

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PHOTOS BY ROBIN ROMANO

Fast Fashion

M

BY PETRA LENT MCCARRON A YEAR AGO, in June of 2019, the ILO adopted the Violence and Harassment Convention 2019 (Convention 190) setting forth the rights of workers to work free from violence and harassment, particularly and for the first time, gender based violence and harassment, given that workers in certain industries, notably the garment industry, are 85-95% female. The right to associate and form trade unions is included in C190, being a critical part of protecting the workers inlabor negotiations.

Protections for migrant workers are included as well.

That was a year – and a world ago. In the meantime, the pandemic hit. Countries shut down and in the garment industry all over Asia workers 22 / M  E DIA VO IC E S

In the Covid-19 era

in formal and informal labor found themselves high and dry. Employers shuttered their factories, often without even paying their workers the rest of what they were owed, according to a report by the Society for Labour and Development, Garment Workers in India’s Lockdown.

At short notice, workers were on the street. In India, the shutdown was so abrupt, that migrant workers were forced to walk home to their villages along the highways, in some cases for a thousand kilometers or more. No single image better illustrates that workers are seen as disposable, instead of the human capital they are.

The Apparel Export Promotion Corporation (AEPC) conducted two

surveys of garment exporters, with 105 and 88 exporters respectively (AEPC, May 2020). 83% of exporters reported that orders had been wholly or partially cancelled. For orders cancelled, 72% said that their buyers had not taken responsibility for materials already purchased (Italics mine) (Society for Labour and Development).

That’s a pretty breathtaking level of entitlement on the part of the buyers, who represent the usual suspects in fast fashion, H&M, Zara, and many others. But until the rights of workers are enshrined in national laws, multinational corporations like H&M, Gap or Walmart will continue to exploit them.

There’s plenty of blame to go around, however. The very

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structure of the fast fashion industry, with 52 microseasons driving an ever-faster hamster wheel of production, creates a pressure-cooker of stress that tends to explode in gross physical abuse of the predominantly female workforce by male supervisors.

“Examples of physical abuse reported by workers interviewed for this study include slapping workers and throwing heavy bundles of papers and clothes at workers, especially during high stress production times.

Workers reported that physical discipline practices spiked after second tier management came out of meetings with senior management driving production targets.”

(Gender-based Violence in the H&M Garment Supply Chain).

Brands may tout their voluntary corporate social responsibility policies and even reap PR benefits from them, but the hard fact

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remains that the conditions under which this clothing is produced are inherently abusive, abuse that is ultimately driven by consumer demand.

Hoda Katebi puts it this way: “Sweatshops, economic exploitation, and genderbased abuse of garment workers are not a reformable by-product of fast-fashion; they are a systemic, inevitable, and necessary component central to fast-fashion’s model of production, at almost every level of the supply chain.”

The pandemic, which has been the cause of so much death and disruption, may yet provide an opportunity to rethink and redesign the way supply chains are run. Voluntary corporate social responsibility policies have signally failed to improve the lot of workers. C190 offers an actionable way to enforce labor protections, replacing voluntary policies that, in reality, are little more than greenwashing.

The new report by Global Labor Justice, Advancing Gender Justice on Asian Fast Fashion Supply Chains Post Covid-19, tracks the efforts to push for wide ratification of C190. Uruguay was the first country to ratify – Argentina, Belgium, France, Namibia, Finland and Spain are poised to do the same. C190 enters into force one year after two member states ratify the convention.

Strengthening labor unions through national laws is the most effective thing that we can do to clean up supply chains. It’s also fairer, because all suppliers must operate under the same laws.

As consumers, we can press our political representatives for ratification of C190, and inform ourselves so that we do not get fooled by greenwashing.

PETRA LENT MCCARRON

is the Associate Editorial Director of Media Voices for Children.

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It’s Where the money Is

BY LEN MORRIS

HE WAS BORN INTO DIRE POVERTY to Irish parents in Brooklyn, New York in 1901. His father was a blacksmith, and he was raised with four siblings in Irishtown. Through the Depression and into the 1950’s, Willie Sutton, “The Actor,” led over 100 robberies, stealing about two million dollars.

Willie had a natural distaste for the wealthy class, but even while robbing a bank he always conducted himself as the perfect gentleman. One bystander described a Sutton hold-up as going to the movies where the usher just happened to carry a gun.

Caught on multiple occasions, Willie escaped from three maximum security prisons disguised as a prison guard, scaling walls with ladders, even digging tunnels. He became a folk hero in his lifetime, raising bank robbery to a form of art.

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The story of Willie Sutton is a mix of legend and half-truths, but it illustrates a common sentiment among everyday Americans. While the country is built on the idea that we all can become rich, nobody has much sympathy for the wealthy few, the bankers and the elite.

According to Americans for Financial Reform, sixty percent of Americans today feel the deck is stacked in favor of the rich and believe they should pay more in taxes.

Less than 30% of Americans have a favorable view of Wall Street banks. Nine out of ten Americans think it’s important to rein in Wall Street. More than half of all Americans express distrust of billionaires. Most tellingly, 83% of all Americans agree that the rules of the economy favor the wealthiest 1% and that they shape the rules of the economy to their own benefit.

Today, Americans are suffering the impacts of a global pandemic - a lethal

mixture of unemployment and shuttered businesses coupled with the loss of employer-provided health care and widespread hunger affecting tens of millions. Twenty percent of those suffering hunger are children under five. We have witnessed the steady deterioration of our infrastructure (clean water, air, access to broadband and hi-tech services). Children in Flint, Michigan still can’t drink the water that poisoned the entire city. States and localities are challenged to find the money we need now to keep our rural hospitals open, to prevent layoffs of first responders, police, doctors, social workers, EMTs, bus drivers and teachers. We will need funds to restore healthcare access to those who have lost it, to rebuild communities, and clean up the environment. We need relief from excess student loans, and expansion of quality childcare and educational opportunities.

A broad-based tax on financial transactions, the so-called Robin Hood Tax, offers the best route to raise revenues with the cost borne mostly by banks, traders and the wealthiest one percent. To be effective, the tax needs to be levied on the broadest array of financial instruments, so that it’s inescapable.

This would include stock trades, especially high-speed trading which generates no benefit to our economy, bond trades, derivatives, shares of partnerships and trusts. The devil is in the details.

The 2020 platform of the Democratic Party includes an endorsement of the FTT and every major candidate supports it. The Inclusive Prosperity Tax endorsed by Senator Bernie Sanders has been scored by the

Congressional Budget Office as generating 777 billion dollars over the next ten years or .05% of our GDP. That’s more money than our Treasury collects from taxes on cigarettes, gasoline and alcohol sales combined.

The tax targets the wealthiest.

According to the Brookings Institute, the top 10% of taxpayers own 90% of the wealth in our stock market.

More than half of all stock is controlled directly or indirectly by the wealthiest 1%.

Today, revenues generated by FTT taxes contribute significantly to the economies of France, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, India, Japan, South Korea, UK, Taiwan and Switzerland. Ironically, the United States has for decades levied a small FTT to generate the funds needed to pay for the Securities and Exchange Commission budget - this agency is the government watch-dog for excess in the financial sector.

Willie Sutton retired from robbing banks and moved to Florida, where he did a credit card commercial for the first bank he ever robbed, the Corn Exchange Bank and Trust Company of Philadelphia. He died a legend at age 80. As his legacy, Willie left us with this thought. When asked why he robbed banks, he said simply, “That’s where the money was.”

Today we need money to put to good purpose. Robbing banks is clearly not the way forward, but having them pay their fair share of taxes certainly should be.

LEN MORRIS

is the co-founder and Editorial Director of MVC, a documentary filmmaker, a lecturer, and an advocate for children’s human rights.

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PHOTO TAKEN IN THE USA BY ROBIN ROMANO

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Your coffee in the morning, More bitter knowing That a child dropped their textbooks And picked up a machete To collect that bit of sugar Making your day a little more sweet.

The cost to hire work to collect the beans, For your iced mocha Frappuccino A mere twenty-two dollars an acre Amongst a family of six, Just to eat for the day.

Your idea of a better life, That of a decent nine-to-five job With a spouse and children at home.

More ideal when someone’s nine-to-five is a nine-to-nine, And their spouse and children, Not cozy at home but instead working beside them.

Their idea of a better day, Getting to sleep knowing nobody was hurt wielding spears and knives, To collect tobacco leaves.

And only dreaming of a day when their children Can run through a school playground, Not a field.

By Kamiah Gardner A student at the College of the Florida Keys

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MEDIA VOICES FOR CHILDREN 110 DAGGETT AVE VINEYARD HAVEN MASSACHUSETTS 02568 MEDIAVOICESFORCHILDREN@GMAIL.COM 508 693 0752

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