United Nations Women's Guild Children's Walk

Good morning everyone,
Bonjour tout le monde,

Bonjour et bienvenue à vous tous au Palais des Nations. Je suis très heureux de vous accueillir pour cette 11e édition de la Marche des Enfants – une tradition qui remonte à 2002 et qui démontre chaque année l’esprit d’amitié et de solidarité de la jeune génération de la Genève internationale. C’est un grand plaisir de voir que vous êtes encore plus nombreux que l’année passée. Vous avez donc déjà gagné une première victoire avant même d’avoir commencé la Marche. Bravo !

Un grand merci au Cercle féminin des Nations Unies pour avoir organisé cette marche. Par votre engagement en faveur des projets d’éducation, vous contribuez directement à donner un un avenir meilleur à des centaines d’enfants. Grâce à la Marche des Enfants, vous - ainsi que tous les enfants participants et leur supporters - avez permis à plus de 300 enfants de suivre une scolarité normale pendant 4 ans. L’image de plusieurs centaines d’élèves des écoles genevoises et des alentours, parcourant des kilomètres à pied pour une cause si importante est une source d’inspiration pour nous tous.

At the United Nations, we emphasize the need for children and youth to both learn about and get involved in the work that we do. Events like today’s show that this is in fact possible and actually easy: we just have to open the gates of the Palais des Nations and so many of you come to learn, to do something that helps your peers in other countries, and above all, to have fun in doing it. It shows that sometimes, just letting young people take action – or as we say at the UN, to “empower youth” – has a tremendous positive impact.

This year, as the United Nations celebrates its 70th anniversary, there will be at least two other occasions on which we are opening the gates of the Palais des Nations to the public. On 24 October, the day of our birthday, you are all welcome to join us for our open day. It is going to be a lot of fun, with a lot of activities, exhibitions, dancing, and a lot of activities for children as well. And on 8 November, we will have the pleasure to host again a training session for the Course de l’Escalade.

I encourage you to join us on these occasions and would like to thank all of the children here today, and of course all the teachers and colleagues whose efforts have been instrumental in making this event possible. It is an important event in that it highlights how incredibly privileged we are in terms of the education we receive, and other benefits such as medicines and plentiful food, which we take for granted. But the biggest privilege is the opportunity we have to help others. So I hope that today’s Marche des Enfants encourages you to experience the happiness of sharing, and inspires you to participate in many similar opportunities in the years to come. It is my pleasure to join my colleagues from the Women’s Guild in handing out these stickers to some of your colleagues here to keep as a small reminder of today’s experiences.

I wish you all a great walk. Très bonne marche à tout le monde!