The Mabo children's parliament

The children of Mabo play a sizeable role in community decision-making. It's off to the school to meet the 'Children's Government'.

Helping children to shape their own futures

In our child sponsoring programmes we take action both for and with children. For example, in Mabo children are not just on the receiving end of projects, rather they play an active role in changing their communities. At school the children elect their Government, which has a say in all adult decision-making.

Just as in a real democracy, the president is elected by the student body. Nominations for ministers and deputies are drawn from the best students in the school. This becomes a matter of great honour for their families and motivates them to keep their children at school.

A mock Parliament with real powers

Far from being a merely symbolic exercise, the children have real decision-making power and assist the adults in their projects at the school. They bear the responsibility of being the voice of their classmates, similar to class reps in France.

Their responsibilities extend beyond this, however. They are also in charge of checking that their classmates attend school regularly and alerting the adults to any absences.

They have a seat on the School Council and contribute to important decisions, for example should we prioritise building new toilets or renovating the classroom? Their uppermost concern at the moment is ensuring that there are enough geometry sets to go round all the students.

A real learning exercise in democracy

Getting children involved from a young age also serves to train the future leaders of Senegal. Rocky, one of the deputies to the Children's Parliament, hopes to become President of Senegal when she grows up. Thanks to sponsoring, she may just get to make her dream come true.