Children’s Christmas Calendar / Børnenes U-landskalender
Christmas 2023 means a new cool and innovative collaboration for the popular Children’s Christmas Calendar
Explainer: The Danish Children’s Christmas Calendar is a count down until Christmas evening the 24th of December for all Danish children. It consists of a paper calendar with 24 small doors hiding a surprise and a TV series with 24 episodes broadcasted on the Danish TV-channel DR. Every year, the profits from the sale of the calendars go to a project in the global south in support of children and young people. The Children’s Christmas Calendar is a way of engaging Danish children and young people in the world around them and expand their horizon to get a better understanding of the lives of other children and youth globally.
In 2022, the tender for the Children's Christmas Calendar was won by two civil society organizations in a new collaboration for the first time. Dreamtown and FANT have teamed up to give Danish children an unforgettable, inspiring and educational trip to Sierra Leone.
When the trees are starting to loose the orange autumn leaves, and the countdown to Christmas is slowly beginning, the Danish children will travel to Sierra Leone. For the first time in the history of the Children's Christmas Calendar, two civil society organizations have won the tender in a partnership.
In 2023, this means that there will be both sport, learning and gender equality intertwined with the Children’s Christmas Calendar, when the Danish Broadcasting Corporation, a well-known Danish children's book author, the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the two civil society organizations Dreamtown and FANT, and their partners in Sierra Leone work together in collaboration with Danish children to make a great count down to Christmas 2023.
All on the team
The year will be marked by girls and young women, when gender equality, girls' and womens’ rights and gender norms become the theme of the Children’s Christmas Calendar. Sport and education will be the entry point to get all on the team - both in Sierra Leone and in Denmark.
Inspiring and competent coaches and teachers will support and motivate girls and young women to run to the soccer field and the field of technical skills to get all on the team in Sierra Leone. Both the young people who dream of becoming world champions with a ball, and those who dream of becoming world champions in IT. Education, school, social support, and strong female role models will give the girls self esteem and self confidence. In motivating communities, they will be prepared to claim their rights and strive for their dreams, express their opinions, and demand that their voices are heard. This happens at the same time as approximately 100.000 Danish children in around 1000 schools learn about Sierra Leone, gender equality, girls' and women’s rights and things they have in common with children and young people in the small but beautiful West African country. All through play and creativity.
More than 75 percentage of the urban population in Sierra Leone is living in slum areas. And everyday more people are moving to the cities to create better lives and to hunt their dreams. The many opportunities in the city is tempting, while at the same time many young people are experiencing to be excluded from decision making in the areas where they live in.
In the slum, the power is often centered at the local chiefs. But in small streets and open spaces, the energy from the young people are flourishing. They are meeting in groups to support each other, to learn, and to develop their ideas to better and safer spaces in the city. This can be city light in areas with lots of assaults. Or to better the acces to fetch water, when you have to walk a long way on small hilly and slippery paths. In between small houses, children playing football, garbage, and a huge generation of young people in the cities of Sierra Leone, dreams, ideas, and creativity, which you rarely hear about, are alive.
With the Christmas Calendar, stories will be told about children and young people surfing the wild waves. Girls who dream of becoming the world's best soccer players. Girls who dream of being the experts when the computer crashes. Who are showing the way, following their dreams, and inspiring others.
Dreamtown has been working in Sierra Leone since 2010 with safety and education for primarily girls and women in the cities Freetown, Koidu and Makeni. FANT has been working in Sierra Leone since 2012 with enhancing girls’ rights through strong sport communities in Bo, Freetown, Kenema, Masiaka, Magburaka, Rogbesseh and Makeni.
Facts:
The name Sierra Leone means the lion mountains. Lions once lived on the sierra leonian soil, but today the country is better known for its pygmy hippos, chimpanzees, West Africa's highest mountain, Mount Bintumani, and hopefully soon for all the extremely cool children and young people who are Sierra Leone's proud and bright future.