VIDEO: Meena, India's Dora the Explorer, Helps UNICEF Promote 'Child Rights'

UNICEF launched its annual Child Rights Week this week in Bangladesh. The program is a part of an ongoing grass-roots initiative to educate children and their families about urgent social and public health concerns that range from neonatal health, nutrition, and early childhood education to the practices of dowry and child marriages.

In a country where the literacy rate is still a struggling 53 percent, and the average age that a child drops out of school is 8 years old, mass media as an instructive tool is vitally important. The cartoon heroine Meena, an Indian girl around the age of 10 who lives in a rural village with her family, is the stand-in for a multitude of girls and boys across the subcontinent facing the same issues highlighted by UNICEF — issues which Meena routinely dramatizes on her show.

"Meena is now a daughter not only of Bangladesh but the whole of South Asia," said the UNICEF representative to Bangladesh, Pascal Villeneuve, in a statement on July 27. "She talks about issues affecting girl children in particular, such as education, early marriage, and unequal distribution of household chores."

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AWARDS: European Children's Film Association Selects 2012 Award Winner

The European Children’s Film Association (EFCA) has selected the Belgian family feature “A pas de Loup” (“On the Sly”) for the inaugural EFCA Award for Best European Children’s Film of the Year. Directed by Olivier Ringer, “A pas de Loup” was selected for the prize by 60 members of the EFCA who are active in the children’s film industry -- the award was announced yesterday at the Berlin International Film Festival.

“A pas de Loup” follows Cathy, a young girl ignored by her parents, who decides to run away into a nearby forest. “We are very happy to announce that the first-ever ECFA Award went to the beautiful, artistically uncompromising ‘A pas de Loup.’ We also hope that this award can contribute to an increased focus on all the fantastic children’s film that are made in Europe,” said Tonje Hardersen, ECFA president. Titles qualified for the award throughout 2011 at a series of nine kid’s fests, including the Children's Film Festival Seattle. “A pas de Loup” stars Winona Ringer as Cathy and debuted last year in the Berlinale’s “Generation” section, going on to win numerous awards at international festivals.

Founded in 1988, ECFA is an association of professionals and organizations who operate within the field of quality films for children and youth. It aims to secure children’s access to the best possible film culture and to increase an awareness of the need for good media politics in European countries.

Source - ECFA website