Kidz4Kidz social media campaign

Kidz4Kidz social media campaign speaks up for children in immigration detention.

‘‘I cannot use their name, I cannot show their face, but I can be their voice.’’

These are the opening words that feature in a new video by student-run organisation, Kidz4Kidz Australia as part of a social media campaign focused on advocating for children in detention.
Students from Mount St Benedict College began the group in 2013. The 15 Year 11 girls came together to campaign to end children in immigration detention, not realising how far their passion and hard work would take them.

Their powerful video features children reading out quotes from children their own age who are currently in detention centres. View video here

The quotes used were taken from The Forgotten Children: National Inquiry into Children in Immigration Detention 2014 Report.

Currently there are 127 children held in immigration detention facilities on the Australian mainland, 88 children held in detention in Nauru and 642 children under community detention.

College Captain Jessica Pereira was part of the Kidz4Kidz team that helped create the video and said she and her peers were confronted by the stories from children in detention.

"These quotes, messages and horrific images were used as the basis of our video," she said. "We felt as though they demonstrated exactly what we as a group wanted to inform the public about and especially people of our age. We were also confronted by the amount of laws the Australian government is breaking in relation to international human and child rights."

Jessica and her fellow Kidz4Kidz members want to spread awareness about children in immigration detention, particularly to other young Australians.

"As children ourselves, we understand the opportunities that they are lacking in and we want to voice this inequality," she said.

The video was launched in conjunction with World Humanitarian Day, a global celebration of people helping people.

As part of the campaign, several other Sydney schools showcased the video on the day including fellow Good Samaritan schools - St Scholastica’s College, Glebe; Rosebank College, Five Dock and Stella Maris College, Manly.

Kidz4Kidz_AUS are aiming to get 100,000 views of their video on their Facebook page and get the issue of children in detention trending on social media.

Media coverage:
Since the launch there has been significant coverage including stories from SBS and Fairfax as well as social media retweets and shares from people such as Christine Milne, Sarah Hanson-Young, Anne Summers, Tara Moss, Scott Ludham, Jane Caro, Marcia Langton (We’re Better Than This Campaign) as well as numerous organisations such as UNICEF Australia, Catholic Mission, Loves Makes A Way, ChilOut, We’re Better Than This Campaign etc.

SBS Story
Hills News story
Alliance of Girls’ Schools Australasia story