Under the slogan “Children don’t stop”, nearly a thousand youngsters in their third, fourth or fifth year of primary school or in special education, from eleven city schools, launched a message of hope almost a year after the start of the pandemic.

“During this long lockdown our hearts and minds have opened up” begins the speech, in which the children set out the positive things (learning to work online and make fairy cakes), as well as the negative things, such as not being able to do work or see friends during lockdown. They didn’t want to leave out the violation of their rights during lockdown either:

“They violated our right to play
and from school we had to keep away.
With our friends we couldn’t hang out,
did anyone take us into account?”

Because of this, the children stress the excitement of going back to school and their commitment to abide by safety regulations and get back to normal as soon as possible.

The Mayor, Ada Colau, sent them her response in a video thanking all children for their huge effort throughout the pandemic.

This year’s edition featured a new mystery game, presented by the heroine Superlaia and posing children with a series of challenges to overcome to achieve some goals and defeat a monster who violates rights.

Read the full speech here.

The Children’s Speech for the Santa Eulàlia Festivities is an education programme to promote the dissemination of children’s rights and their recognition as citizens with full rights, as set out in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The work carried out in the classroom over various months stimulates children’s participation and collaboration and is a way of them learning about and engaging with the city’s institutions.