Unicef Calendar by Valeggio Students Highlights Children’s Rights

This is the first calendar to be officially sponsored by Unicef, the international organization dedicated to protecting childhood. It is called “duemilaeunicef” and was created by the istituto comprensivo “Carlo Collodi” of Valeggio, which has been supporting initiatives in collaboration with the international organization for years. The calendar draws inspiration from the Convention on the Rights of the Child: each month highlights a different right and a drawing that represents it.

In January, the right of children to peace is emphasized: a sand timer with scenes of war at the bottom and flowers and a dove with an olive branch in its beak at the top. The calendar continues with the right to family, respect for the environment, health, citizenship, freedom of religion, education, play, protection against exploitation, safety, information, and equality. Each right is illustrated with a story told through pencils, markers, but mostly through imagination, by 98 students.

Sensitivity initiatives and the creation of the calendar

“Every year,” explains Maurizio Tencheni, director of the Institution, “we collaborate with Unicef to develop a project that demonstrates our sensitivity in defending children’s rights. It seemed particularly meaningful to us to produce a calendar to mark the conclusion and beginning of a millennium.”

We contacted the Municipal Administration, which, along with other sponsors, covered the costs, and within a year, we produced the calendar.” It is a wonder, and although the drawings seem only twelve, in reality, it contains around a hundred of the 500 created by the children. Each image is a collage.

The task of selecting the drawings and combining them to best express the right to be highlighted was given to Carlo Giovine, a Turin artist involved in creative projects in schools. “My role was to select the most meaningful drawings and assemble them to create something different, accurately reflecting the message the children wanted to convey.”

“I mostly worked on the colors,” Giovine explains, “because children don’t yet master color techniques, even though they are excellent at drawing.” The calendar produced by the students with Giovine’s help is truly unique in its spontaneity, joy, and straightforwardness of message.

The final message and Max Jacob’s quote

“That was the goal we wanted to achieve,” concludes Maria Luisa Oliosi, the project coordinator and delegate for Unicef relations. “It is no coincidence that we opened the calendar with a quote from the writer Max Jacob: ‘The Child took my hand, and I held it tightly to protect myself from unhappiness.'”