Schoolkids deliver petition, armbands and a warning of the plight of kids overseas

Sydney
22 December 2002

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Schoolkids deliver petition, armbands and a warning of the plight of kids overseas

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Schoolkids deliver petition, armbands and a warning of the plight of kids overseas

Left: St Gregory's school captains Peter Mudge and Jennifer Darmody with the 15 bags of yellow armbands worn on Catholic Mission's Remember the Children day.

One thousand children around the world would die during the time it took to run a short assembly at school.

That was the message school captains Jennifer Darmody and Peter Mudge gave to politicians, Church leaders, teachers and fellow students at St Gregory's Primary School, Queanbeyan.

They called on the Government to do more for the rights of children overseas by increasing foreign aid.

And they presented a petition with 17,030 signatures to federal MP Chris Gallus, who was representing the Prime Minister, and Bishop Pat Power, auxiliary Bishop for Canberra and Goulburn.

They also presented 15 bags of yellow armbands, signed by those who wore them as part of the Catholic Mission's Remember the Children campaign in October.

The petition urged the Gov ernment to increase overseas aid from about $2 billion a year to $5 billion - from 0.25 per cent of GNP to 0.7 per cent.

Mrs Gallus told the assembly that the Government has many, many commitments and would find it difficult to increase aid to children overseas.

However she promised to table the petition and the armbands in Parliament and said she would take the children's concerns to the Prime Minister.

Bishop Power thanked the children for their efforts and reminded them that we are all children of God, irrespective of colour, race or religion.

"Is a child's life in Iraq worth less than the life of any of the children here today?" he asked.

Children would be better helped if our Government conducted "a war against poverty instead of a war against terror", he said.