Translator: Emma Dovlatyan Reviewer: Kristine Sargsyan
Before I start my speech,
I‘d like to ask, if you have ever been in a situation,
when people older than you spoke about an interesting thing
but didn’t let you express your own opinion.
Let me guess, they told you that you are not mature enough
or it’s not for your age.
Yeah, and you may have guessed that
I also happened to be in such situations very often.
That’s why today I am going to talk about smart people,
who don’t have the chance to speak up.
In 1941 Franklin Roosevelt in his speech about world situation
encouraged people to respect human rights and 3 freedoms:
freedom of speech, conscience and fear.
But today it seems that Roosevelt’s words are forgotten,
as modern society is indifferent to democratic ideas
that are created by itself
and violates the most important advantage have:
freedom of speech.
Let’s go even deeper in the past,
we can meet documents proving, the freedom of speech of a human
both in Babylon and in ancient Greece and Rome.
First historical proof is considered to be laws
by Hamurabi king of ancient Babylon (1760 B.C.).
It was a basalt monument
on which were found 282 laws in Akkadian.
In it several times was mentioned about human’s freedom of speech.
According to the laws,
even the king couldn’t make someone stop talking.
Approximately three to four years ago
the most interesting thing for pupils in our region
was the process of going home from school or vice versa.
But once, a program started that gavet hem an opportunity
to do something not only in community,
but also in the frames of school.
First pupil counsel was organized,
it included pupils from 13 schools of the region.
There were 2 clubs in the counsel: journalists and defendants.
They were informing about different issues
and trying to find solutions to them.
One of the main issues solved through our team work
was annual medical examination.
A lso the Eco 2013 and 2014 projects which were about tailings,
and putting auto signs on the roads.
Besides, we’re assigned to find new active kids and teens
and make them part of our clubs.
As we need people who’ll continue our mission after us,
and will do that even better than we did.
While working on these projects,
I learnt that there’s a young person in our region who has disabilities,
but that person is also very smart.
Because of physical limitations he left school as he was at 4th grade.
He was isolated from the society.
During our meeting he told about difficulties he is facing every day,
and confessed that he feels very lonely in this world full of people,
as he can’t find a friend.
We suggested him to join our activist group.
After we agreed on this we provided this guy with computer,
through which he keeps in touch with us
and he is able to use it for different goals.
Now, he takes part in the preparation
and implementation of different programs.
He also makes suggestions how to help disabled people
and make their everyday life a little bit more interesting.
The other day, kids at school decided to organize an event
during which they could talk about things that bother them.
One of the pupils who wanted to particpate,
was very lazy and had bad reputation at school.
As soon as the organizers learned
that he also wanted to take part, they refused him.
But after a while he also had a chance to present his own idea.
And what do you think the topic was?
Everybody was amazed, as he startedto talk about his own self,
about his positive and negative sides.
Today he has lots of success at school,
as he had a chance to show what’s bothering him.
This is how important it is
to listen and to understand each other.
There aren’t important or non-important opinions.
Everything we think should be presented to our society,
as it’s our thoughts that change this world.
And after all, society can be free
only if people enjoy their freedom of speech.
Thank you!