Meet Aliya Allie, 13, of South Africa
By Suzanne Freeman

	Aliya talks to Childrens Express reporter Jasmine Stewart.

Aliya Allie came to the UN Special Session on Children to "tell the governments to stop promising and start implementing."

As an activist in South Africa, she has learned that the governments will listen and act.

"We made them listen in South Africa," she told Scholastic News. "If a government wants to be known as a democracy and to be one of the greatest in the world, it has to listen to the people."

Aliya says she learned more in her three days at the Children's Forum than in three years in school.

"This will help us to go back to our countries with new ideas from other countries," she said. "I am hoping I have told someone else something from my personal experience that they have learned from."

Does she believe all her hard work will really make a difference?

"It all depends on the government," she said. "We've done our part. We've come up with the solutions. It entirely depends on the government and the society."

Aliya plans to make a career in either science, law, or the media.

Go back to UN Children's Forum

Photo: Suzanne Freeman