Every year, the Day of the African Child is celebrated on 16th June. This annual event is held across the globe to honour the memories of students who were massacred in Soweto, South Africa, in 1976 for protesting against education injustice and inequality in the apartheid regime. It was designated as Day of the African Child in 1991 by the African Union and every year events are organised to promote children’s rights. Thirty million of the world’s 57 million children out of school are in sub-Saharan Africa.

OWL runs a special Day of the African Child event at one of its 15 link schools in Warwick District every June. The schools in Bo also celebrate. It is always a fabulous day of celebration, fun and excitement as the children who attend get to experience a range of activities throughout the day. These included African drumming, art, hearing African tales and stories, performing an African dance and singing songs. They also have the chance to meet and present our annual ‘Send My Friend To School’ work to our local MP, Matt Western, and join  a video link to some school children in Bo for singing and dancing together!

In 2020 and 2021, the event moved to online celebrations due to Covid-19. The day was shared via TEAMs with children across the OWL family both in the UK and Sierra Leone. Here at St Margaret’s we were able to join in with drumming and dance workshops as the whole school embraced the opportunity to celebrate the Day of the African Child.