We all remember about childhood, when we were playing with the other children or when we shared all with our friends.

For all of us, childhood is a magic period, in which we seemed to have more energy, the fruits were tastier and the grandma’s cakes were exceptionally. I remember when my grandma used to tell me stories at fireside, when it was so cold outside. All of these memories seem to be the pages of a book of fairy tales.

But unfortunately not all the children enjoy this magical times. There are families with financial difficulties and children don’t play with the toys, which can be ignored by the children from the family with a better financial condition.

In this age, often called like civilized, we can hear about parents who abuse their children in a physically or emotionally way. There are also children around the world who are exploited in various ways that sometimes is hard to imagine by the people from the modern society.

Since one century ago, many manifestations took place to reduce the child abuses and to create institutions to protect the children.

During the conference for Protection and Welfare of Children this took place at Geneva, in August 1925, the officials of 54 countries adopted "The Declaration of the Right of the Child”. Also, in this day the participants at the congress talked about Universal Children’s Day.

After this conference, some governments adopted a specific day dedicated to Children’s Day. In 1954, UNICEF recommended for each country to adopt the celebration of "Children’s Day” on 20th November. It seems that each country choose a different day for it.

For Poland and Romania, 1st June seems to be a good choice to celebrate the event, in this day is sunny and children can enjoy the time spent outside with the other children.

Like in these two countries, other 30 countries celebrate Children’s Day on 1st June, especially the countries from East of Europe.

In Poland and Romania, like in other countries, are organized special activities dedicated to the children. There are many activities, like drawings on the street, different games, songs and many others. The kids enjoy these very much. In this day, parents seem to satisfy the wishes of their sons or daughters giving them sweets and toys.

But Children’s Day is more than these activities dedicated to kids. It’s an opportunity to raise the awareness regarding to the abuses, exploitation and discrimination that children face with it.

There are all around of this world children who work like the adults, are abandoned by their own parents, are forced into prostitution, or they are victims of the discrimination by religion, ethnicity or disabilities. There are a lot of situations in which kids can become victims of this society.

All of these efforts are made to protect and combat the abuses against children, the ultimate goal being to develop a society which we can really call civilized. We must be active parts in this attempt to create a better society.

But everything is changing and I can say that things are evaluating in the good direction, remaining only to keep this direction and to increase the speed of changing these things.

I hope that more and more children will have a magical childhood and the world of stories to be their reality, not only to hear them before sleep…