Over 3,500 children visit UNICEF Pacific photo exhibition to mark 70 years #forEVERYchild

Children curiously studying photos from the Pacific region by renowned photographer, Vlad Sokhin. (© UNICEF Pacific/2016/Joseph Hing)

“I learned a lot of things by coming to this exhibition — most importantly about the rights of children. I know I have the right to be healthy. To be educated. And to be equally treated” — Shalom, 18.

Over two weeks in November, more than 3,500 students from schools across the country, made their way to the Fiji Museum in Suva, to visit a photo exhibition celebrating 70 years of UNICEF.

The exhibition includes a collection of 38 photos, stretching across seven decades and multiple countries, including the 14 countries covered by UNICEF Pacific’s multi-county office.

The temporary exhibition space at the Fiji Museum in Suva where UNICEF Pacific staff hosted school groups visiting the UNICEF 70th anniversary photo exhibition. (©UNICEF Pacific/2016/Joseph Hing)

The photos chart UNICEF’s evolution since it was established in 1946, to assist children in Europe in the wake of World War II, to the global emergency and development agency it is today, active in more than 190 countries worldwide.

Archival photos from the 1940s-70s illustrate the early years of UNICEF. (L-R © UNICEF/UNI41886/Vachon, © UNICEF/UNI43147/Unknown, © UNICEF/UNI42506/Unknown, © UNICEF/UN04118/Danois)

UNICEF Pacific was established in 1984 to meet the needs of children across the 14 Pacific Island Countries of Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Republic of Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu.

Archival photos from Fiji in the 1980s . Left, in 1988 a mother and her baby attend the UNICEF supported Valelevu Primary Health Care Centre which provided free immunisations and growth monitoring to children up to four years of age. Centre and right, children and families from Buca Village. (© UNICEF/Matt Flynn)

Archive photos from 1989 and 1990 were used to illustrate the milestone signing of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in 1989 and subsequent World Summit for Children in 1990.

Left, in an office at the United Nations Head Quarters in New York in November 1989, UNICEF Executive Director James Grant, boy scout Brian, Under-Secretary-General Jan Martensen, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Audrey Hepburn and boy scout Michael make a telephone call to children at the United Nations offices in Geneva, Switzerland, to announce the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. (© UNICEF/UNI40118/Mera) Right, UNICEF was the first of many ‘causes’ to enlist (Left-right) UNICEF Goodwill Ambassadors Sir Peter Ustinov, Liv Ullman, Audrey Hepburn and Julio Iglesias stand together, following the closing session of the World Summit for Children, in the UN General Assembly Hall at UNHQ in 1990. (© UNICEF/UNI40208/Barbour)

Additional archival photos from Fiji and Solomon Islands rounded out the twentieth century portion of the exhibition, and highlighted some of the areas UNICEF was focusing on at the time.

Left, A little girl from Santa Isabel, Solomon Islands in 1992. (© UNICEF/ Hajchrzak) Centre, In 1990, the Housing Assistance and Relief Trust (HART) residents in the village of Nakaski near Suva, started several income generation projects supported by the Government of Fiji and UNICEF. Here children help to tend the community’s vegetable gardens, one of the many projects supported by this initiative. (© UNICEF/ Watson) Right, In co-operation with the ministries of health and education, UNICEF helped construct sanitary water ‘blocks’ at schools in the village of Natoaika, located on the Rewa River near Suva. This is what UNICEF now calls ‘WASH in Schools’ and can be found in many schools across Fiji and the Pacific. WASH stands for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene. (© UNICEF/ Watson)

At the start of the exhibition, UNICEF Pacific staff briefed each visiting group on the core purpose of UNICEF, the principles around children’s rights as well as an introduction to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The exhibit goes on to illustrate how the realisation of the rights of children is central to the Sustainable Development Goals, with each photo caption including the relevant CRC article and SDG.

Children from a school outside of the capital of Suva, sitting under the first photo of the UNICEF photo exhibition. (UNICEF Pacific/2016/Joseph Hing)

The second half of the exhibition includes a collection of photos from across the Pacific region highlighting key themes including health, education, reducing inequalities, climate change, ending violence against children and responding to emergencies.

Each school group picked up on different themes, leading to engaging discussions. Many children were drawn to the photos around UNICEF’s work in responding to emergencies, following category 5 tropical cyclone Winston that swept through Fiji in February 2016, affecting 62% of the population including 185,000 children under 18.

One of the best ways to ensure the protection and promotion of children rights is to ensure that children themselves know about their rights.

Anna (14) said, “The UNICEF exhibition was great. I got to learn more about children’s rights — our rights.”

Teachers also found the exhibition useful, with Meli adding, “There is 17 Sustainable Development Goals and one of them is for us to help children have a brighter future with the right to education. Exhibitions like this help children to understand their rights more.”

The exhibition runs until 10 December with a special reception taking place with His Excellency, President Konrote of Fiji, on 8 December.

UNICEF Pacific promotes the rights and well-being of every child, in everything we do — maternal and child health, nutrition, HIV and AIDS, child protection, education, water, sanitation and hygiene as well as policy, advocacy, communication for development, planning and evaluation. Our multi-country programme and office located in Fiji covers the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.