česky
english
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL | 2010-01-07
As in previous years, Amnesty International once again arranged a day dedicated to innocent and defenseless children in the third world who do not have access to quality education in their own countries or, in some cases, no education at all. Moreover, it involved children who instead of attending school and being educated are forced to work in factories. Unfortunately, Amnesty International had determined a nearly impossible goal in which a few of us voluntarily participated. This year was concentrated on the alarming situations in China and Afghanistan. In addition to those two countries, they also strived to promote the situation with Gypsy children and their education options in our own country.
At first our task seemed to be a piece of cake - just nicely attempting to persuade passers-by to simply sign up on the three letters addressed to ministers of education in each of those countries. But appearances can be deceiving.
Our charity mission of hunting down signatures started off after 8 o’clock in the morning, even though we were supposed to start at exactly 8.00, because as you know it is hard for us teenagers to be on time anywhere. Wouldn’t you know, it was extremely cold outside and even our teeth were chattering. This might have been a reason why most of the passers-by were so cross and uptight. Another explanation is that it is in Czech nature to be rude towards complete strangers.
There were 8 of us brave enough (just kidding) to comb through the center of Ostrava and shopping malls such as Futurum - and our final result? You would not believe it, but pretty thick piles of signed papers were placed on Mr. Helebrant’s desk at the end of our 4-hour-long-running-acrossthe- city hunt. ☺ Summing up that day, we were pretty glad to help out those less fortunate than we are.
Partrycja Szusciková, Alžběta Petrusová
grade11