With the aim of raising awareness of the rights of the child, this annual film festival provides children between the ages of 8 and 12 an insight into the lives of children in situations vastly different from their own: children who have to work and are thus denied the opportunity of an education, who are orphaned, who suffer from violence or who are neglected. Watching films with the entire class gives teachers the opportunity to discuss the subject matter in depth. And let’s not forget the fun part: enjoying a high-quality film with your classmates in a real cinema! Some of these children had never been to the cinema before!
This year’s festival offered a great opportunity to put the spotlight on the Syria Back to School project that Dutch SI Clubs have initiated in cooperation with UNICEF to enable Syrian refugee children in the camps in Turkey to go to school. For this reason, the theme of this year’s film festival was refugee children and their integration.
Union of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and of Suriname