10 kid's Suggestions for African First ladies

You gotta love kids...

Last week, Los Angeles hosted the African First Ladies Health Summit and amidst a crowd of African First Ladies, Hollywood celebrities and many well-meaning organizations, it's the kids who couldn't attend that stood out.  

The wives of the presidents and prime ministers of 14 nations gathered for the first time to talk of health, education, women's issues and Aids in Africa - all really important topics, but topics that got lost in the media blitz brought on by the coordinator's feeling that this meeting wouldn't go well unless you mixed in a bunch Hollywood celebrities.

As a result, if you heard of the event at all, all you got were endless photos of Cameroon's First Lady posing for photographs with Paris Hilton, and numerous shots and discussion of what Diane Lane, Maria Bello, Maria Shriver, Kristin Davis, and Jessica Alba were wearing at the gala ball (all great ladies I'm sure).

The Conference was sponsored by ExxonMobil and sessions ‘facilitated' by Chevron, GE, Pfizer and Proctor and Gamble, which right away set a kind of tone to the gathering.
Now the importance of the meeting, and the good intentions of all involved can't be disputed, but what strikes me are two things.  First, by organizing it like a Hollywood shindig all the good works of the many struggling social organizations that are trying to do good works in Africa is drowned out by the noise of the gossip columnists.  And, second, while the many speeches spoke of the importance of empowering women, particularly young women, and you don't have any young women in the meetings, something is lost - both in real terms and in credibility.

So, my friend Bob Barboza, on his endlessly energetic mission to include kids in the world dialogue, brought some of his journalist youth to the event, and while not allowed in to the event, they did manage to get enough of what was going on to prepare a list of questions for the women - which I give to you in somewhat abbreviated form (full article here).  You decide if their questions are better than a photo of Paris Hilton, striking her ‘Here's hoping I'm still young enough to do this silly pose' kind of pose.

10 Questions from the kids for the First Ladies of Africa:

1.    The next time you have a summit meeting make sure that you find ways to include kids.

2.    Eliminate all of the gatekeepers.  Those are the people that get in between first ladies and kids.  These people make all the arrangements, do your scheduling, make decisions for you, and make all of the rules.

3.    Give kids a chance to interview first ladies in our own way.  We are very interested in your stories and we want to help.  Don't be afraid to talk to us about AIDS.

4.    Remember that we are just like the first ladies.  Kids don't have very much power, we have no authority, and we have no budget. All we have is kids power.  

5. We want to collect stories and share them with kids and others from around the world.  We call this kids power.  With kids power we can make a difference.  We know how to use technology on a low budget.  We text message each other and we have our own system of communication.  We listen to music and watch a lot of TV so we know more than you think.  Stop excluding us from the important issues.

6.    Remember that one day the world is going to belong to us.  This is a good time to get us more involved.  Ask us the tough questions.  If we don't have answers to tough questions then help us to find answers.

7.    Remember the next time to allow kids into your First Lady Summit Conference Meetings.  We need information to get ready for the day when we are in charge.  Make sure that when important issues are being discussed kids are involved and give feedback.   This will help to improve relations among adults and young adults.  Find creative ways to get us involved.  If you want more doctors for Africa ask kids to ask doctors to help.  What do you have to loose by trying this creative technique.  

8.    Listen to our Podcast of African Issues.

 
9.    Listen to us we have ideas on how kids from around the world can collect stories and help each other.

10.     Our world is in a lot of trouble once again. AIDS and other challenges are taking lives.  Our world finances are in a big mess, we are still having difficulty talking to one another.  Do you think it might be time to let the kids take over?  This is just a question, you have tried everything else and failed, why not give "kids power" a chance.