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Bahá’í News

July 1980

Bahá’í Year 137

IYC: A final report

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The Bahá’í Faith is unique among the world’s religions in the emphasis Bahá’u’lláh places on the importance of all children—the world citizens of tomorrow—and in the degree to which He has established principles and guidelines for their education, training and well-being.

This fundamental commitment to children ensured the enthusiastic participation of the Bahá’í world community in the United Nations-sponsored International Year of the Child.

The editors are happy to devote this entire issue of Bahá’í News to an international survey of Bahá’í activities during the International Year of the Child.

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Contents

IYC report
A worldwide summary of Bahá’í activities for the Year of Child	2
Travels in Africa
By the Bahá’í International Community’s IYC consultant in Africa	10
IYC update
Late-breaking news of many Bahá’í-sponsored IYC events	16

Cover

Children all over the world were the beneficiaries last year of a wide variety of Bahá’í-sponsored activities supporting the United Nations Year of the Child. In many cases, these activities laid the foundation for ongoing programs of education designed to improve the lot of children in many countries. The Bahá’í community is proud of its sup- port of lYC and other humanitarian programs developed by the United Nations, and this issue of Bahá’í News is devoted to a summary pre- pared by the Bahá’í International Community of Bahá’í-sponsored programs and events honoring and supporting the Year of the Child.

Change of address should be reported directly to Office of Membership and Records, Bahá’í National Center, 112 Linden Avenue, Wilmette, IL 60091, U.S.A. Please attach mailing label. Subscription rates: one year, U.S. $8; two years, U.S. $15. Second class postage paid at Wilmette, IL 60091. Copyright © 1980, National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. World Rights Reserved. Printed in the U.S.A.

Bahá’í News is published monthly by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States, as a news organ reporting current activities of the Bahá’í world community. Manuscripts submitted should be typewritten and double spaced throughout; any footnotes should appear at the end. The contributor should keep a carbon copy. Send materials to: Bahá’í News Editorial Office, 112 Linden Avenue, Wilmette, IL 60091, U.S.A.

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IYC report

A worldwide round-up of Bahá’í activities supporting the International Year of the Child

The Bahá’í International Community—the Bahá’í world community—is a cross-section of humanity, including almost all nationalities, classes, trades, professions, rich and poor, literate and illiterate. It comprises members of the Bahá’í Faith living in more than 100,000 localities, in 340 countries and territories—152 independent nations.

The Bahá’í International Community is accredited in consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and with the United Nations Childrens’ Fund (UNICEF). It is also associated with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and with the UN Department of Public Information. It has representatives with the United Nations in New York, Geneva, Vienna and Nairobi as well as a special representative for the continent of Africa. These representatives are the voice through which the Bahá’í view is made known at the United Nations—through participation in meetings, written submissions, and personal contact with members of the UN Secretariat and delegates of the 152 member nations. The Bahá’í International Community constantly keeps the UN informed of worldwide Bahá’í participation in UN programs and observances.

Throughout the International Year of the Child, the Bahá’í International Community worked closely with IYC and UNICEF officials, both at the United Nations and overseas, and was able to present to these officials a steady stream of reports and pictures of the various activities Bahá’í communities had undertaken around the world, as well as samples of publications and promotional materials they had produced for the Year.

At the conclusion of the International Year of the Child, the Bahá’í International Community compiled the following summary report of the IYC activities of the Bahá’í world community for submission to the United Nations.

The “national affiliates” referred to in the report are the 126 National Spiritual Assemblies of the Bahá’í world, whose communities share in the consultative status accorded to the Bahá’í International Community.

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INTRODUCTION

The International Year of the Child was warmly welcomed and enthusiastically supported by the Bahá’í International Community and its 126 national affiliates. The following report contains details of some of the many special events and activities sponsored by the Bahá’í world community in observance of the Year.

It would be misleading, however, to report only on these special IYC-linked activities. Bahá’í communities in 100,000 localities in more than 300 territories and independent countries are committed, by reason of their Faith, to the education, training and well-being of children, and it is impossible to evaluate the total Bahá’í contribution to IYC without reviewing, in brief, those regular and continuing Bahá’í activities that accord with the purposes and goals for which IYC was established.

The attitude of the Bahá’í world community toward the world’s children is based upon the teachings of the Bahá’í Faith, enunciated by its Founder more than 130 years ago. Fundamental to Bahá’í belief is the recognition that the human race is one entity and that all its members are entitled to equal rights and opportunities. The Bahá’í Faith condemns all forms of prejudice, whether religious, racial, class or national, upholds the principle of equal status, opportunity,

[Page 3] rights and privileges for men and women, and advocates universal compulsory education.

The Bahá’í teachings emphasize the importance of the family as the basic unit of society and stress the role of the mother as the first educator of her children. Education is regarded as being of three kinds: material (which concerns the health and well-being of the body); human (which concerns the development of the intellect); and spiritual (which concerns character training and the acquisition of universal qualities such as justice, mercy, truth, compassion). Children are regarded as integral members of the family, with the right to share their feelings, thoughts and ideas, and they are encouraged to participate fully in the activities of their community.

Ongoing Programs—1. CHILD EDUCATION

A major goal of successive plans for the development of the Bahá’í world community given to the affiliates of the Bahá’í International Community is the establishment of Bahá’í-sponsored children’s classes in communities where Bahá’ís reside.

Bahá’í children’s classes are structured according to the needs of the community. In those parts of the world where no formal educational system exists, or where lack of school facilities is still the rule, Bahá’í communities have established primary and secondary schools and, in some villages, “tutorial” schools in the local Bahá’í Center provide classes in elementary subjects.

There are approximately 75 such schools throughout the world. They are non-denominational and are open to children of all backgrounds. In the current seven-year development plan of the Bahá’í world community, thirty-three national affiliates have been asked to establish tutorial schools. (See Appendix)

Literacy programs, in many cases for illiterate women, have been established in Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, New Hebrides, Swaziland, Korea, Thailand, Spain, Bénin, India, and Morocco, and the feasibility of projects in a number of other countries is under consideration. Literacy education is a goal of the Bahá’í radio station in Otavalo, Ecuador, and will also be included in the programs of a new Bahá’í radio station now being planned in Peru.

In Ethiopia, a literacy project devised by the Bahá’ís and implemented during IYC was commended by the UNESCO liaison officer and by the UNICEF representative, who described it as a model for other projects. The Bahá’í community views the education of women as a key factor in child education.

In areas where compulsory education and state school systems meet the need for general education, Bahá’í communities are focusing upon the spiritual and moral education of children. Weekly children’s classes are a regular feature of Bahá’í community life and aim to nurture the spiritual, mental, emotional and physical health of the children in the community. These classes are open to the children of Bahá’í and non-Bahá’í parents alike. (Detailed statistics for 1979 are not yet available, but it is known that Bahá’í children’s classes are being held regularly in at least 46 countries).

Bahá’í communities in the rural areas of developing countries are encouraged to build their own local Bahá’í Centers and to use them as venues for children’s classes. One thousand two hundred and eighty-five new Centers were built during the five years ending April 1979—an indication of the potential for growth and development in these communities.

Bahá’í summer and winter schools provide formal courses for both Bahá’í and non-Bahá’í students, including general classes for children, on a wide variety of subjects. Courses may last for a weekend or for several weeks.

Ongoing Programs—2. TEACHER TRAINING

The establishment of Bahá’í children’s classes must necessarily be accompanied by the training of teachers, and teacher training institutes regularly figure in Bahá’í community activities. IYC provided the impetus for special efforts and large-scale programs in this area. In observance of the Year, the Bahá’í National Education Committee of the United States, for instance, published a Teacher Training Manual and sponsored a series of regional programs for the training of child education consultants.

IYC-linked teacher training institutes and child education seminars (involving parents as well as teachers) were held in Australia, Chad,

An IYC exhibit mounted by the Koolaupoko Bahá’í community at the Kadua Library, Hawaii.

[Page 4] the Dominican Republic, Malawi, Rhodesia, Singapore and Trinidad. The Bahá’í International Community’s IYC consultant for Africa traveled extensively throughout Ghana, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Togo, Nigeria and Cameroon to hold classes for parents and teachers in village communities.

Ongoing Programs—3. CHILD EDUCATION MATERIALS

Affiliates of the Bahá’í International Community are constantly developing materials for use in Bahá’í children’s classes and at Bahá’í summer and winter schools. During the period covered by IYC, new materials were developed and distributed in Burma, Ireland, Lesotho, Malawi, Nigeria and the United States. Curricula and lesson plans were formulated and circulated in Ghana, Ivory Coast, Uganda and the United States. In New Zealand, a National Child Education Committee was formed to make resource materials available to Bahá’í communities throughout the country.

Henry Harman of the United Nations office in Panama presents prizes to winners of the Bahá’í-sponsored IYC children’s art contest during a ceremony last January at the Museo del Hombre Panameno.

Ongoing Programs—4. PUBLICATIONS FOR AND CONCERNING CHILDREN

The literature of the Bahá’í Faith includes a large number of books for children, as well as compilations from the Bahá’í Writings and commentaries upon the Bahá’í teachings relating to children, the family, and child education. IYC focused the attention of Bahá’í publishing agencies upon literature for and about children, with the result that several new publications appeared in this category, some of them specifically dedicated to IYC. The Bahá’í Publishing Trust of the United Kingdom issued several new children’s titles and began work on other children’s books. Several new children’s books were published by private Bahá’í publishers in the U.S. and the U.K. A Bahá’í children’s book, “Flowers of One Garden,” was published in New Zealand in Maori. “Educacion Espiritual de los Niños” was a publication of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Colombia.

The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Italy initiated the publication of a special booklet for IYC containing quotations from the Bahá’í Writings on the education of children; Australia published a pamphlet entitled “Our Children”; and two pamphlets—one on education and the other on the family—were published in Ireland to mark IYC. The Canadian Association for Studies on the Bahá’í Faith, whose “Bahá’í Studies” series of booklets contains research papers and scholarly works on issues of concern to Bahá’ís and others, dedicated one of its publications to IYC. Published in April 1979, this “Bahá’í Studies” booklet contained a monograph, “The Violence-free Society: A Gift for Our Children,” by an eminent Bahá’í psychiatrist, and featured the IYC logo on the cover.

Ongoing Programs—5. WOMEN’S ACTIVITIES

Bahá’í women’s committees operating in 45 countries are contributing greatly to the well-being of children by launching and coordinating programs aimed at developing the role of the mother in the family and the role of women in the community.

SPECIFIC BAHÁ’Í INVOLVEMENT IN IYC

Organization and Planning

A special newsletter distributed to national Bahá’í communities in 1977 on activities to promote the relationship with UNICEF encouraged Bahá’í communities to plan programs and activities in support of the broad objectives of the Year.

The Bahá’í International Community cooperated with the IYC Secretariat and the NGO/IYC

[Page 5] Committee; provided IYC materials to many national affiliates; informed them of visits by Dr. Estefania Aldaba-Lim, special representative and assistant secretary-general, International Year of the Child Secretariat; encouraged them to support Universal Children’s Day; appointed Dr. Jane Faily as IYC consultant for Africa (Dr. Faily’s report appears on pp. of this issue), and, through correspondence, gave constant encouragement to Bahá’í bodies and individuals throughout the world.

Before and during International Year of the Child, affiliates of the Bahá’í International Community worked closely with official IYC organizing bodies throughout the world. Bahá’ís in Bermuda, New Zealand, Belize and Hawaii were appointed to serve on national IYC committees. The Bahá’í International Community’s IYC consultant for Africa met and held discussions with national and state IYC and UNICEF personnel in all six African countries she visited.

The IYC State Steering Committee in Hawaii appointed a Bahá’í chairman of its Children’s Day program, and subsequently presented an IYC award to the Bahá’í community. To ensure that the American Bahá’í community was well prepared for IYC, the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States arranged for the distribution of Universal Children’s Day kits to more than 1,000 local Bahá’í administrative bodies. Child education consultants throughout the country assisted local Bahá’í communities in planning their IYC activities. In the Netherlands, UNICEF materials were distributed to local Bahá’í communities in preparation for IYC. Bahá’í communities in Belgium, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the U.S. sponsored concerts and donated the proceeds to IYC and UNICEF.

Promotion of IYC

The Bahá’í International Community and its national affiliates vigorously promoted IYC through the media, through publicity campaigns, displays, exhibitions, public meetings and conferences, and through national and international Bahá’í publications. These promotional activities can best be summarized under separate headings.

(a) Publicity Campaigns: The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States launched a major IYC promotional campaign on the theme “Love That Child.” Promotional materials included “Love That Child” brochures, folders, billboards, posters, press advertisements, sweatshirts, buttons, balloons and stickers. The campaign also included TV and radio spots. Bahá’í national communities in Alaska, the Bahamas, Singapore and Taiwan also adopted the same theme and produced and distributed “Love That Child” materials. Other IYC promotional materials produced by national affiliates of the Bahá’í International Community included an IYC calendar (Hawaii), posters on the rights of the child (Sweden), a 14-foot “Rights of the Child” banner (the Netherlands) and IYC leaflets and stickers (Italy, New Zealand, Taiwan).

Asfaw Tessema, representing the Bahá’í community of Ethiopia, presents a copy of the Bahá’í literacy booklet ‘Ha Hu in Nine Days’ to John Allen, UNESCO representative in Ethiopia. Looking on (left to right) are Bahá’ís Berhane Gila and Belete Worku, and UNECA public relations officer Mr. Peters.

(b) Exhibitions and Displays: The Bahá’í International Community has received reports from eight of its national affiliates regarding major displays and exhibitions mounted by Bahá’í communities to promote IYC. In Italy, three exhibitions on the theme “The International Year of the Child” were mounted, at trade fairs in Cagliari, Bari and Milan. The Bahá’ís of the Netherlands sponsored displays in various parts of the country, including a two-week exhibition in Drachten on “Rights of the Child.” This was also the theme of an exhibition at the National Bahá’í Center in Bénin. In Fiji and Hawaii, IYC displays were mounted in universities and public libraries. Finland promoted both national and local displays, and in Peru the Bahá’ís mounted a special exhibition for Universal Children’s Day. American Bahá’í communities sponsored countless display booths at local festivals organized in observance of IYC. The Bahá’í exhibit at the Bermuda IYC Conference in November featured “Love That Child” and “Children Give Color to the World” themes.

[Page 6] (c) Parades and Festivals: The Bahá’í “Love That Child” float was awarded first prize in the non-commercial category in the annual Aloha Parade in Honolulu, Hawaii, and Bahá’í children participated in the UN Week “Sunrise Ceremony,” also in Honolulu. Bahá’í youth in Fiji entered an IYC float in the annual festival parade in Ba Town. The Bahá’ís of Ecuador sponsored a Children’s Festival at which children from rural schools presented dances, dramas, recitations and songs to an audience of 1,000, and a local Bahá’í community in New Zealand organized an IYC children’s parade and presented a “Rights of the Child” scroll to the mayor. Tongan Bahá’í children took part in the national IYC parade.

(d) Radio/television/press publicity: IYC and related topics such as children’s rights and child education formed the subject matter of press articles placed by Bahá’ís in national and local newspapers, and of television and radio presentations sponsored by or featuring Bahá’ís. In addition, local and national media frequently gave editorial coverage to IYC-linked Bahá’í activities, thus further promoting the Year.

Articles relating to IYC were placed by Bahá’ís in national and local newspapers in Bolivia, Cameroon, Haiti, Ivory Coast and Nigeria, while the press in Lesotho, Panama and Sweden covered Bahá’í events that had been organized in observance of IYC.

The Bahá’í community of Bolivia featured spot announcements of IYC in its weekly half-hour radio program, and devoted three of these programs exclusively to IYC. In Alaska, the Bahá’ís sponsored twice-daily public radio announcements of IYC for two months, while three radio stations in Haiti carried announcements of public meetings for IYC organized by the Bahá’í community. Radio Bahá’í in Ecuador broadcast many special programs on IYC and gave extensive coverage to nationwide IYC-linked Bahá’í activities. In Fiji, Liberia, Nigeria and Cameroon, Bahá’ís gave a total of 13 radio interviews devoted to IYC, and in New Zealand, a Bahá’í presented a program on the education of children and mothers.

Early in 1979, the Bahá’í community of Vitoria, Brazil, sponsored a series of three television programs on the education of children. A special IYC program was prepared and presented on Bolivian television by a group of Bahá’í children. In Ecuador, Bahá’ís appeared on seven IYC-linked programs (one of which featured a Bahá’í children’s choir). The Bahá’í International Community’s IYC consultant for Africa gave three television interviews on IYC during her visit to Nigeria. The Bangui Bahá’í Children’s Choir (Central African Empire) performed 13 songs in different languages on a television program devoted to IYC, with each song being introduced by a child.

(e) Public events: Reports of public events sponsored to promote IYC have been received from 22 of the Bahá’í International Community’s national affiliates—namely, Alaska, Australia, the Bahamas, Bénin, Cameroon, Canada, Haiti, Hawaii, Honduras, Italy, Lesotho, Liberia, the Netherlands, New Hebrides, Nigeria, Singapore, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Tanzania, Togo and the United States. The majority of these countries reported several events.

These events included public meetings, conferences, seminars, slide presentations, panel discussions and symposia; topics covered included “International Year of the Child,” “Child Education,” “Children’s Rights,” “An International Perspective on the Conditions of Children,” “Raising Whole Children,” and “Toward a Better Understanding of the Child.” Several events were scheduled to coincide with Universal Children’s Day; others were held on United Nations Day or Human Rights Day. Some were sponsored in conjunction with local or national IYC committees and featured IYC or UNICEF speakers as well as Bahá’í speakers. The events took place at universities, schools, national and local Bahá’í Centers, sports arenas and public meeting halls in cities, towns and villages.

In Singapore, 2,000 spectators in a high-density residential area saw an open-air IYC presentation by Bahá’í children. A special IYC service at the Bahá’í House of Worship in Australia was attended by more than 450 people including officials from the United Nations Association of Australia and the Australian UNICEF Committee. The Bahá’ís of Hawaii sponsored an IYC banquet, and the Bahá’í International Community’s representative to the United Nations was keynote speaker at the official IYC Conference banquet in Bermuda. In Monrovia (Liberia), 44 representatives of different groups concerned with the success of IYC attended a tea party sponsored by the Bahá’ís, and in New York more than 100 distinguished guests from the United Nations Secretariat, UN missions and non-governmental organizations attended a luncheon hosted by the Bahá’í International Community to mark IYC.

(f) Bahá’í media: The goals and purposes of IYC, as well as the countless activities it inspired, were given saturation coverage by Bahá’í media worldwide. In recognition of IYC, Bahá’í editors also included in their publications an unprecedented number of articles concerning the

[Page 7] welfare and education of children. Coverage began in 1978 and is continuing into 1980.

International Bahá’í media

Bahá’í News, published in the United States and circulated to Bahá’ís in more than 125 countries, devoted its October 1978 issue to the upcoming IYC. A series of four-page feature articles on child education, dedicated to IYC, appeared monthly between December 1978 and March 1979. Throughout 1979, the magazine reported extensively on the multitude of Bahá’í-sponsored IYC activities throughout the world and carried multi-page features on major events.

The quarterly Bahá’í journal, World Order, previewed the Year in its Summer 1978 editorial, and subsequently carried lengthy articles on child education and child health and nutrition written by authorities in these fields. The French-language quarterly, La Pensée Bahá’íe, devoted its June 1979 issue to IYC and carried numerous reports of IYC activities throughout the year.

“Bahá’í International News Service”—the international newsletter of the Bahá’í world, circulated to all the Bahá’í International Community’s affiliates—carried numerous reports of IYC activities.

National Bahá’í media

Throughout 1979, national Bahá’í newsletters and bulletins published in countries in every part of the world gave extensive coverage to IYC.

The American Bahá’í, the monthly newspaper circulated to every Bahá’í in the United States, devoted four pages of its October 1978 issue to announcing IYC. During the Year itself, the newspaper carried a series of six special articles on the moral and spiritual education of children, and reported on each of the regional programs mounted by the U.S. Bahá’í National Education Committee for the training of child education consultants.

Every issue of The American Bahá’í from January 1979 to February 1980 featured lengthy reports on the IYC activities of American Bahá’í communities nationwide—activities that included the sponsoring of promotional meetings, luncheons, exhibitions, displays, panel discussions, booths, floats, bus billboards, awards, presentations, radio and television appearances, as well as children’s festivals, parties, concerts, art exhibitions, sports, games—and many other IYC activities too numerous to mention.

Copies of bulletins received by the Bahá’í International Community from its national affiliates in Alaska, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Fiji, Germany (FDR), Hong Kong, Italy, India, Japan, Lesotho, Liberia, Luxembourg, Morocco, the Netherlands, New Hebrides, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Rhodesia, Singapore, Switzerland, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United Kingdom contained a wide range of IYC items, including announcements and explanations of the Year, reproductions of the IYC logo, editorials encouraging Bahá’í communities to support IYC, special articles on children and the family dedicated to IYC, compilations of quotations on children from the Bahá’í Writings, also dedicated to IYC, and countless reports of the many and diverse activities by the Bahá’ís in honor of IYC.

Members of the Ballet Shayda company in a scene from ‘Hurray for Kids,’ a ballet created by Canadian Bahá’ís in honor of the International Year of the Child that was seen by more than 30,000 people in Canada.

Australia, Brazil, Hong Kong, India, Italy and Rhodesia each devoted an entire issue of the national Bahá’í bulletin to IYC. Most national bulletins featured regular pages or columns for children, and three national affiliates (Alaska, Italy and the United States) published separate Bahá’í children’s magazines.

As previously reported, Radio Bahá’í in Ecuador devoted many of its programs to IYC and also covered IYC-linked Bahá’í activities.

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Celebration of IYC

Although children played an active role in many of the Bahá’í activities promoting IYC, these activities were generally aimed at and involved the adult public. In contrast, the many special programs and activities sponsored by the Bahá’í world community in celebration of International Year of the Child were specifically child-directed, so that the children—the intended beneficiaries of IYC—would have the opportunity of participating fully in its observances. Both Bahá’í and non-Bahá’í children were included in these activities.

(a) Children’s festivals/parties/entertainments: Five hundred children from seven villages attended a gala IYC children’s party at the New Era Bahá’í School in Panchgani, India, and the children themselves provided the musical and dramatic entertainment. Bahá’í communities throughout the Solomon Islands marked Universal Children’s Day with programs of prayers, songs, sports and games—all chosen, organized and presented by the children. Children’s puppet shows were sponsored by Bahá’í communities in Levuka (Fiji) and La Paz (Bolivia).

The Bahá’ís of Lae (Papua New Guinea) sponsored an IYC program at the local children’s hospital; in the United Kingdom, Bahá’í communities in London and Gloucester organized IYC parties for underprivileged children from several children’s homes; and the Bahá’ís played host to disabled children at an IYC party in Tanzania.

(b) Children’s conferences: During IYC, Bahá’í communities in Australia, Chad, the Dominican Republic, Germany (FDR), Ireland, Lesotho, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Panama sponsored national and local children’s conferences and institutes. During the National Children’s Festival sponsored by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Australia, children’s camps were held in every state. Throughout 1979, special programs for children were a feature of Bahá’í summer and winter schools worldwide.

(c) Children’s art and music: IYC was the inspiration for an outpouring of music and song throughout the Bahá’í world, and Bahá’í children’s choirs performed at numerous events in celebration of the. year. The 24-member singing group, “Children of Bahá,” composed of children from 4 to 14 years of age, traveled extensively in California to perform at public events and on radio and television.

The Bahá’í stereo LP, “Happy Ayyám-i-Há!,” featuring children’s stories and songs, was judged by Religion in Media to be the best children’s album issued in the United States in 1979. In Austria, 400 copies of the LP “Das Kind,” recorded by Bahá’í musicians and featuring children’s songs in seven languages, were distributed to government officials and prominent people. The record is being sponsored by the Rettet das Kind (Save the Child) organization. Surinam chose as its official IYC song a song based on the Bahá’í Writings and composed by a Bahá’í musician.

Thirty thousand people in Canada saw the Ballet Shayda’s production of the ballet “Hurray for Kids,” created by Canadian Bahá’ís in honor of IYC.

The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Ecuador launched an IYC children’s art competition and distributed details to every primary school in the country. Radio Bahá’í promoted the competition and the Ecuador Bahá’í children’s choir performed at the award ceremony. The Panamanian Bahá’í community sponsored an art contest that involved 4,000 children in 27 schools, and a Bahá’í-sponsored IYC poster competition was launched in public schools in Alaska. In Australia, a Bahá’í-sponsored exhibition of children’s art, which was officially opened by the director of the UNICEF Committee for Australia, attracted more than a thousand contributions.

An IYC Children’s Week, organized by the Bahá’í community of Hyderabad, Pakistan, featured children’s art, essay, singing and quiz competitions and culminated in a prize-giving ceremony attended by 500 guests. The Bahá’í International Community’s affiliates in New Zealand, Japan, Mauritius, Monaco and the U.S.

A highlight of the Bahá’í-sponsored IYC Children’s Week in Karachi, Pakistan, was a quiz contest for children conducted by well-known radio and TV personality Mrs. Khushakht Shuhajat (left).

[Page 9] also reported on children’s competitions and exhibitions they had sponsored to mark IYC.

CONCLUSION

The International Year of the Child served to reinforce an existing commitment by the Bahá’í world community to child development, education and welfare and provided the stimulus for increased efforts with existing programs, as well as inspiring many new programs.

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Bahá’í communities in the following countries have reported International Year of the Child activities and/or are involved in child education programs.

AFRICA

Bénin	Ghana***	Mali***	Tanzania***
Burundi***	Guinea***	Mauritius***	Togo
Cameroon Republic***	Ivory Coast***	Morocco	Upper Vola***
Central African	Kenya***	Nigeria***	Zaire
Republic***	Lesotho	Rwanda***	Zambia***
Chad****	Liberia***	Séneǵal***	Zimbabve Rhodesia
Ethiopia	(Madagascar)	Sierra Leone***
Gambia, The***	Malawi***	Swaziland
AMERICAS
Alaska	Chile****	Guatemala	Peru***
(Argentina)	Colombia***	Guyana	Puerto Rico
Belize	Costa Rica	Haiti*	Surinam
Bermuda	Dominican	Honduras	Trinidad and Tobago
Bolivia***	Republic	Jamaica	United States
Brazil	Ecuador	Mexico	Venezuela***
	(Falkland Islands
ASIA
Bangladesh***	India*****	Pakistan****	Singapore
Burma****	Japan	Philippines****	(Sri Lanka)
Hong Kong	Korea*	Sikkim****	Taiwan
	(Laos)
AUSTRALASIA
Australia	Marshall	New Zealand	Solomon Islands**
Fiji Islands	Islands	Papua New Guinea***	New Hebrides***
EUROPE
Austria	Iceland	Luxembourg	Switzerland
Belgium	Ireland,	Netherlands	United Kingdom
Finland	Republic of	Norway	Monaco
Germany	Italy	Sweden

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* Primary and/or secondary schools already established. (A total of 22 schools)
** Tutorial schools already established. (A total of 55 schools)
*** Tutorial schools as goal in current development plan.
(Tutorial school is a term, originally adopted in the Bahá’í community of India, to describe the simple type of school, organized and conducted under the auspices of the local Bahá’í administrative body, wherein one teacher is employed to conduct classes in reading and writing and elementary subjects for the Bahá’í and non-Bahá’í children in a village.)

(Countries in parentheses have been added since the original Report was submitted).

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Travels in Africa

The Bahá’í International Community’s consultant in Africa for IYC spends a busy 10 months on road

Acting as Bahá’í International Community consultant in Africa for the International Year of the Child (IYC) and the United Nations Decade for Women, Dr. Jane Faily, Intern Training Director, Royal Ottawa Hospital, Canada, undertook extensive and successful activities in a number of West African countries. Traveling from July 1978 to May 1979, and assisted by Bahá’ís accompanying her as well as by local Bahá’ís, Dr. Faily visited Ghana, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Togo, Nigeria, and the United Republic of Cameroon, conducting teacher-training institutes, development workshops for women, and curriculum design and administrative planning classes. Since in many rural areas teachers from eight to 12 villages came together, each workshop affected indirectly as many as 400 to 500 children. Dr. Faily’s work had, therefore, the potential for far-reaching impact.

Many of the participants in the teacher-training institutes directed by Dr. Faily were either public school teachers or non-professionals who teach children’s classes. Eighty percent taught in rural areas where there are no high schools and education experience is very limited.

According to Dr. Faily, classes sponsored by Bahá’í communities for children in these areas include music, arts and crafts, games, memorization, and personal hygiene, as well as certain concepts vital to the advancement of women and children, such as the oneness of mankind, the equality of men and women, the importance of education, respect for all religions, and such personal qualities as honesty, cleanliness, and industriousness. The classes are conducted for the most part in the local language, as well as in either French or English. This is an advantage to the rural children, for success in school is greatly affected by their fluency in English or French.

In Liberia, Dr. Faily conducted a development workshop for women preceding the first West African Bahá’í Women’s Conference in December 1978. This intensive training program to develop leadership skills was attended by 18 women from Ghana, Iran, the United States, and Togo, all of whom were working in West Africa. During the conference that followed, 75 participants from 14 countries took part in a two and one-half hour workshop demonstrating techniques for conducting children’s classes.

In her contacts with IYC personnel in the various countries, Dr. Faily acted as a liaison between the National Bahá’í community and the IYC program organizers for the area. In this way, Bahá’í communities became informed of IYC activities, and the IYC personnel became aware of Bahá’í resources that could be used—and those that already were being used—to help with their programs.

Dr. Faily’s activities on behalf of IYC and the Decade for Women drew much attention from the media. In newspaper articles in Nigeria, Cameroon, and Ivory Coast, as well as in radio and TV interviews, Dr. Faily and her assistants were able to discuss the goals of IYC and the relationship between child care and the status of women, and to explain and demonstrate educational methods based on encouraging participation rather than inflicting punitive discipline.

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By DR. JANE FAILY

As a consultant to the Bahá’í International Community for the International Year of the Child (IYC) and the UN Decade for Women in Africa, I drove more than 7,000 miles in a camping bus through seven countries—from Monrovia, Liberia, to Yaoundé, Cameroon Republic—from July 1978 to May 1979.

It was a voyage of discovery. I learned how grassroots village Bahá’í communities function in West Africa, and learned how vital the UN development projects, such as those for women and children, are in that part of the world. It was an internal odyssey as well; I started with hope and finished with certitude.

For several years I had hoped to find an opportunity to use my professional skills among people in developing countries. A project already was in motion. In 1974, the Universal

[Page 11] House of Justice—the governing body of the Bahá’í International Community—had called upon Bahá’ís to assist the education of children in Africa by developing materials and sending trained personnel. On my return from the 1977 Bahá’í Asian Women’s Conference in Delhi, India, I met with the Bahá’í Committee for Children’s Education in Africa and was recruited for a year’s travel in Africa to train teachers, help volunteers already in the field, and prepare an evaluative report on conditions and materials. An international survey of materials produced by Bahá’í educators throughout the world had been carried out; field data were needed to assess which materials were best suited for African countries.

Dr. Victor de Araujo, representative of the Bahá’í International Community to the United Nations, agreed that it would be useful for me to do liaison work between the national and state IYC personnel and Bahá’í institutions. Bahá’í activities in support of International Women’s Year had been extensive in Togo and Ghana, for example, including conferences of village women in both countries. A foundation had therefore been set in place to support national IYC goals. By working with the Bahá’í institutions in Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo, Bénin, Nigeria, and the Republic of Cameroon, I could gain an overview of programs and resources and could help the Bahá’í communities coordinate with national IYC programs.

Introducing IYC

Creating an awareness of IYC goals and programs in the West African Bahá’í community came easily. 1979, the International Year of the Child, began with an auspicious occasion, the first West African Bahá’í Women’s Conference in Monrovia, Liberia. The conference drew women from 16 countries speaking 23 languages. Not only were these educated women, but also village women from Mali, Ghana, Togo, Bénin, Niger, Upper Volta, Nigeria, Cameroon, and busloads of women from remote areas of Liberia, such as Nimba County.

The equality of men and women and the role of women in community life were among the conference themes. Village women spoke movingly of the effect the conference had on them. For many, merely attending the conference represented a break with tradition, and the open discussion of women’s roles in demonstrating their equality with men had changed their thinking and given them new courage.

The goals of IYC were explained at that conference, and the delegates heard a report from Mme. Kazimi of Abidjan about her experiences as a member of the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) planning committee for IYC activities in Ivory Coast. Collaboration between the Bahá’í institutions and UNICEF in Ivory Coast resulted from channeling UNICEF materials through the Bahá’í community structure.

Dr. Jane Faily spent nearly a year in West Africa promoting Bahá’í activities supporting the International Year of the Child.

Malnutrition is widespread among village children there. At teacher-training institutes in Abidjan, Daloa, and Bouké, excellent educational materials from the Women’s Affairs Office of UNDP were disseminated. Prepared for illiterate women, the materials, in the form of picture stories, show how infants develop kwashiorkor (a disease associated with malnutrition) and include pictures of foods available at village markets that could help in preventing the disease. These materials were an invaluable addition to the Bahá’í curriculum.

Guidelines for Bahá’í Education

Questions and comments from women at the conference in Monrovia clarified the Bahá’í principles that would serve as guidelines during IYC and afterward:

1. Providing education for all children, girls as well as boys, is a parental and community responsibility.
2. Physical, intellectual, and character education for each child is necessary.

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3. Training in the oneness of humanity, and fellowship with those of all races, nationalities and religious backgrounds is essential.
4. Purposeful education, enabling each child to acquire an art, craft, trade or profession useful to society is the goal.
5. Work in a spirit of service to mankind, not narrow personal gain, is the desired result of Bahá’í education.
6. The method and content of education must strengthen family bonds, not undermine them.
7. Respect for parents and teachers must be taught, but creating fear or resorting to harsh corporal punishment is to be avoided.
8. The obligation and skills for individual investigation of truth must be taught to each child.
9. Family and community life must recognize the equality of men and women, and the importance of the mother as the first educator of the child.

Our first teacher-training institute had been held in Kumasi, Ghana, in July 1978. Counsellor Thelma Khelghati explained at that time that the institute could do far more than simply prepare teachers. If approached properly, she said, it could strengthen the Bahá’í Assembly in the village (that is, the nine Bahá’ís elected from the community to guide its affairs).

Mrs. Khelghati was convinced that it was important to involve the village Assembly in the institute, and to offer the resources of the team in a way that would enhance its organizational ability. She shared with us a brief description of the goal of “tutorial schools.” (See the Appendix of the UN’s IYC Report for a discussion of these schools.) If our team simply organized a teacher-training institute, selected students, and then left, she said, the local initiative and support emphasized in setting up Bahá’í tutorial schools would be lost.

Dr. Jane Faily and Mrs. Ofiong Ekpe visit a Bahá’í children’s class at Ikat Mbo, near Calabar, Nigeria, taught by Mrs. Mahnaz Bahine. Dr. Faily, the Bahá’í International Community’s consultant in Africa for the International Year of the Child, traveled more than 7,000 miles in 10 West African countries during 1978-79 observing Bahá’í-sponsored educational programs.

[Page 13] At the Liberia conference, we met Hoda and Heshmat Naddafi, whose experience in presenting teacher-training institutes in 95 villages in Liberia confirmed Mrs. Khelghati’s point. Local Bahá’í institutions were new, they had not become involved in the institutes, and the Naddafis doubted the ability of the individuals they had taught to continue children’s classes without their help.

Teacher-Training Institutes

The advantage of involving the local Bahá’í institutions was clear. To do so, however, required much more time, and capable local assistance. Our greater success was at the institute held in Kumasi. There the dean of the School of Agriculture, Dr. Benjamin Asare, and his wife, Beatrice, were our Bahá’í hosts.

Mrs. Asare accompanied us to eight villages in the Kumasi area. She was invaluable, not only as a translator, but in winning the confidence of the villagers and involving them in the project.

We met with each elected Bahá’í Assembly and asked whether they felt they would benefit from a teacher-training institute. They consulted on the needs of the children in their village, and about which members of the community should be chosen to come to Kamasi to attend the institute. While there, we saw a little of what life was like in those villages and were therefore more sensitive to the needs of our students.

Some of the delegates appointed to attend the institute were already school teachers. They learned methods based on encouragement and praise, rather than severe corporal punishment, from Mrs. Asare, and basic Bahá’í principles such as the oneness of mankind, the essential unity of religions, the need to educate both males and females, and respect for parents and for Bahá’í institutions. Others chosen to attend were Bahá’ís who had done no previous teaching. They were given prepared lesson plans and “practice-teaching” experience.

At the close of the institute, the enthusiasm was great. The students expressed pride and gratitude for what they had learned. One student, who had asked Mrs. Asare on the first day for bus fare, told her later that he preferred to pay his own expenses. He said that he had learned much and that he wanted to make some sacrifice to express his gratitude.

To further strengthen our bond with the village Assemblies, each of us accompanied one of our students back to his or her home village to observe the first class. We spent the night in the village as guests of the Assembly.

Our team drove north to conduct institutes in Tamale and Zibila, and on our return south we revisited the villages around Kumasi. Two months after the Kumasi institute, all but one of our students had been holding regular classes in his village. Approximately 300 children were being taught in both their local language and English. Later institutes, in Abidjan and Daloa, Ivory Coast; Lomé, Togo; Owerri, Port Harcourt, and Calabar, Nigeria; and Namfe, Douala and Bafoussam, United Republic of Cameroon, were similar, but there was less time for involving the village Assembly. Fortunately, national women’s and children’s committees in those areas are working to sustain the teachers and develop local administrative capacity.

The high note of local strength came from Chad. In anticipation of my visit there, the Children’s Committee organized institutes for 125 villages. When illness prevented me from coming, the committee members themselves conducted the institutes and produced a superb set of lesson plans in both French and English that was distributed to other West African communities. Thus my most successful national program came in a country that I was unable to visit!

Coordination With IYC Programs

Even when we had less time to spend with local institutions, the grassroots Bahá’ís provided a valuable resource to national and state IYC programs. In Nigeria, for example, after meeting with the extraordinarily capable and dedicated national chairman of IYC, Dr. M.A. Silva, I met also with the capable Chief of Women and Nutrition Affairs, Mrs. Marie Touré N’Gom; with Dr. Awoniyi, IYC chairman for Oyo State; Dr. Nwozeo, chairman for Imo State; and Mrs. I.C. Ogun, chairman for Rivers State. In each case, the Bahá’í community had organized support for IYC programs, and I was able to discuss local IYC goals in television and newspaper interviews.

Every IYC committee I met with identified as its chief problem reaching the grassroots. TV, newspaper, and radio interviewers in Lagos, Ibadan, Aba, Owerri, Port Harcourt, and Calabar all asked me whether IYC would amount to anything more than publicity and banquets among already-privileged city dwellers.

Members of more than 300 Bahá’í communities in Nigeria made it possible for me to answer “yes” and to give evidence. Although many were themselves illiterate, they were wholly committed to providing education for boys and girls in their communities as an article of faith. And they had been willing to sacrifice to realize that goal. We were therefore able to ask them to choose representatives to come to a central vil-

[Page 14] Teacher-training institutes were an important part of Bahá’í-sponsored educational programs in West Africa launched in support of the International Year of the Child.

lage to a teacher-training institute held at the Bahá’í Center which the villagers themselves had built. After the institute, they would return to their home villages to conduct regular children’s classes with the support of parents.

Accomplishments

Teacher-training institutes, media interviews, poetry readings, conferences with IYC personnel, interviews with top-level government officials, community development, and the sheer feat of crossing the Sahara and then 7,000 more miles of roads and quasi-roads in West Africa in a second-hand Volkswagen camping bus seems impossible, and it would have been, without the cooperation of the many Bahá’ís who worked with me.

The first team, in Ghana, included a gifted child education specialist, Deborah Jeffress, from North Carolina. She helped create the teacher-training materials we used, and she taught me to feel at home in villages.

Another team member was an Iranian, Fourozan Golshani, a sophisticated recent engineering graduate on his way to graduate school in Great Britain. He had volunteered his summer holiday and paid his own expenses to drive our car, carry water jars, stand for hours in petrol lines and help with the institutes. Fourozan’s grandfather became a Bahá’í at the age of 70. He was illiterate. Learning that Bahá’í scripture enjoined education, he taught himself to read and write. His son, Fourozan’s father, was educated in teaching and law. He moved to a small village in northeastern Iran and founded a high school where there had been none, and he educated his four daughters, two of whom are physicians, as well as his son.

Although Fourozan was more at home in the milieu of Ṭihrán, Paris, or London than in West Africa, he had willingly sacrificed his holiday and his savings to assist in this project.

Gerhard Bindseil, a Canadian Bahá’í of German origin, drove the bus across the Sahara and from Liberia to Cameroon and back to Nigeria. At the age of 50, he had gone back to school at a university in Ontario before deciding to spend some time in Bahá’í work in Africa. He was an apt student, and after observing several times, he conducted teacher-training institutes in places I was unable to reach.

Dorothy Hansen, a poet and classroom teacher from California who previously pioneered to South America, traveled with us from February until May of 1979, interrupting her work as a visiting scholar at the University of Ghana. Her discovery of the poetry of Gladys Mae Casely-Hayford, perhaps the first West African woman poet, and her own poetry, written in response to the scenes and people we encountered, added a unique dimension to our IYC activities. Artists flocked to her poetry readings in Monrovia, Lomé, Ibadan, Owerri, Douala, and Yaoundé. Through her, they learned about IYC goals and how artists might support them. Her rapport with both media and village people was extraordinary. The breadth of her sympathies and the vigor of her humanity were invaluable bridges across the barriers of culture, language, race and nationality. Those qualities were helpful in our dealings with the media and infinitely precious in the villages where people quickly sensed and trusted her and responded with naturalness and cooperation.

From Calabar, Nigeria, Mrs. Ofiong Ekpe traveled with us through the United Republic of Cameroon. Headmistress of a nursery school and mother of five children, Mrs. Ekpe’s example stimulated the participation of the women, and the admiration of the men, in a way our own activities could never have accomplished.

And of course we depended upon the Bahá’ís who housed us, from Iran, the United States, Canada, Malaysia, India, and Mauritius, as well as Ewe, Ga, Fanti, Hausa, Yoruba, Ibo, Effic, and so many other peoples who form the West African Bahá’í community. From this great diversity came insights and ingenuity far richer than any one culture could generate.

The Issue of Westernization

Leopold Sedar Senghor, President of Sénégal, has written that however noble and discriminating the minds, the result of outside “help” to Africa would be to reduce its people to becoming consumers, rather than builders, of civilization.

[Page 15] The Bahá’í belief in the oneness of mankind treasures the diversity of the human family. Bahá’ís, who are firmly opposed to militant nationalism and racism that threaten the security of the world, also eschew the cultural domination of one part of the world by another. Bahá’í writers, such as the Hand of the Cause of God Amatu’l-Bahá Rúḥíyyih Khánum, who herself undertook an historic journey across Africa some years ago, have expressed alarm over the destructive march of Western materialism through the Third World.

The salient point in Mrs. Khelghati’s early counsel about community involvement was that our work should enhance local initiative, not replace or dominate it. Our goal was to offer education, reading and writing if possible, but always accompanied by respect for one’s cultural heritage and a firm belief in the unity of the human race. Our challenge was to offer these concepts without also imposing Western culture and methods.

Conclusion

How can the results of such a trip be summarized—in the number of institutes held, the number of children now attending regular classes, the growth of local community initiative, the new educational materials being produced, the closer link between Bahá’í institutions and United Nations agencies in those countries, the good will of government officials?

There were 12 teacher-training institutes, dozens of radio and television interviews, articles on IYC and Bahá’í principles of education in the national newspapers of Ivory Coast, Nigeria and the United Republic of Cameroon. I consulted with IYC committee chairmen and UNICEF representatives, and communicated their goals to the Bahá’í institutions. Interviews with government authorities clarified the status of the Bahá’í Faith as an independent world religion that is non-political and an accredited Non-Governmental Organization with the Economic and Social Council and UNICEF. This is one sort of data summary.

Personally, there is another infinitely precious piece of “hard data.” Where once I had merely hoped that a community whose basis was spiritual commitment could bring support to the United Nations’ IYC in meaningful terms, I now had certitude. The rich diversity of the Bahá’ís of West Africa, supporting the vision of IYC, had produced classes in villages where there were none, and were raising a generation of children trained to see the world as a family of man.

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IYC update

Reports of IYC activities are still reaching the Bahá’í communities in all parts of the world. Featured on the following pages are some items that were not included in the summary report presented to the United Nations.

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Bangladesh

During the International Year of the Child, Bahá’í tutorial schools were established in three villages in Bangladesh. This community also runs a regular feature for children in its national newsletter.

Canada

The October 1979 issue of “Pulse of the Pioneer”—the journal circulated by the National Pioneer Committee of Canada to Canadian pioneers throughout the world—consisted entirely of material submitted by pioneer children. Published in both French and English, the journal contained letters, poems, essays and drawings by Canadian Bahá’í children living in 30 different countries. The ages of the contributors ranged from 3 to 17 years.

Falkland Islands

As a result of the efforts of the Bahá’ís of the Falkland Islands, it is possible that—for the first time ever—the UNICEF calendar of children’s art will include a picture drawn by a Falkland Islands child.

To mark International Year of the Child, the Bahá’í community of Stanley sponsored a countrywide children’s art contest—the only major IYC event mounted by any organization in the Falkland Islands. Widespread advance publicity (flyers, posters, radio broadcasts) tied in the contest with IYC and with the work of UNICEF. Judging was by an independent panel and prizes were presented by Mrs. Connie Baker, wife of the Chief Secretary of the Islands. Live radio coverage of the award ceremony included a commentary on the winning pictures and interviews with local Bahá’ís.

A public exhibition of the 180 pictures entered for the competition attracted around 150 visitors each day. Also shown was an attractive range of materials, and a display explaining the Bahá’í relationship to and cooperation with the United Nations.

The Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Stanley cooperated closely with the United States Committee for UNICEF (the organization that produces the UNICEF calendar). Competition prizes were picture puzzles, books and calendars purchased from the Committee, and the Committee requested that the 20 prize-winning pictures be submitted for consideration for the 1981 calendar. The Bahá’ís, and the Falkland Islands children, have since learned to their delight that eight of the pictures submitted were considered to be of sufficiently high quality to put before the nominating board.

The UNICEF display was a popular attraction at the IYC art exhibition sponsored by the Bahá’ís of the Falkland Islands.

Laos

Materials supplied by the local UNICEF office formed the basis of a permanent exhibition at the National Bahá’í Center in Vientiane, Laos, during the International Year of the Child. The Bahá’ís of Laos also sponsored two Children’s Conferences in honor of the Year.

Madagascar

In November 1979, the Bahá’ís of Tananarive, Madagascar, hosted a conference in celebration of Universal Children’s Day. The proceedings were chaired by an 11-year-old Bahá’í child. The program included traditional songs and dances, party games, and a talk on the importance of universal education, which included an explanation of statements from the Bahá’í Writings on the subject.

Samoa

Television audiences in American Samoa had more than one opportunity of seeing a special International Year of the Child television program produced and filmed by members of the Samoan Bahá’í community. The 30-minute program, which featured professional Bahá’í musicians Russell and Gina Garcia, was broadcast on three different occasions during the Year.

[Page 17] Other activities during the Year, aimed at benefiting the children of both American Samoa and Western Samoa, were the publication, in Samoan and English, of a pamphlet, “Our Children—A Bahá’í View”; the translation into Samoan of the children’s booklet, “Flowers of One Garden”; and the development of institutes for training teachers to conduct Bahá’í education classes for children in an ever-increasing number of villages.

Thailand

The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Thailand marked IYC by publishing a number of children’s books in the Thai language, and is now planning to build a kindergarten school in northeast Thailand. The school will be open to both Bahá’í and non-Bahá’í children.

Peru

‘Flowers of One Garden’ was the theme of a program for the International Year of the Child sponsored by the Bahá’ís of Lima, Peru. A special feature of the program was a children’s choir. Shown here are some of the Bahá’í children who took part in the program.

Morocco

Shown here are young participants in one of the parent/child conferences sponsored by the Bahá’ís of Morocco to mark the International Year of the Child.

Zimbabwe

As a result of the initiative of Auxiliary Board member Helen Wilks (who passed away in January 1980), Bahá’í classes were organized in many outlying areas of Zimbabwe (Rhodesia) during the International Year of the Child. More than 600 children attended these classes. Auxiliary Board member Carlos Kaupo intends to continue the wonderful work for the children begun by Mrs. Wilks.

Argentina

Bahá’í and non-Bahá’í children participated last November in the ‘Week of the Child’ sponsored by the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Buenos Aires, Argentina.