The boy looks directly at us. His eyes are difficult to read. Is he happy or sad behind that anxious look on his face? He has short,dark hair, is wearing half-length white trousers and a green blouse. He is standing all by himself surrounded by green on all sides. Mountains spring up, and a valley slopes down in deep-green folds. He is standing in the grass, which catches the light in a play of colours in shades of green.He has stopped in the middle of the deserted landscape, but where does the three-year old boy come from , and where is he going? What does his family do, and how many brothers and sistes has he got? What is the family`s situation and conditions? What are the boy`s possibilities? What does he have to eat? How does the food taste? Are there any sounds in the landscape? Is there a smell of grass? How does it feel to walk bare-footed in grass and on rocky ground?

There are many questions that arise and many answers possible when a picture is open.
The picture of the green boy is one out of thirty pictures, which are part of a series about children outside Europe. The pictures are chosen so that they reflect different, but mainly positive situations. We do not want to express or give the pupils the impression of hopelessness, when we talk about the children of the world.
The pictures are found in the material "The Game of Chances", partly as slides and partly as photos. Background music has been written to the slides series.When the slides are shown the first time the pupils must look at the pictures and listen to the tape with the impressive music.The pupils are told that they must choose one of the pictures and write a short text for it. When the slides series has been shown the corresponding photos are scattered over the floor. The pupils choose, either individually or in pairs, a picture , which they feel like writing about. They have a free choice as regards genre. And fortunately pupils choose very differently. They also ask different kinds of questions to the pictures and give just as different answers, because they have their own angles to knowledge about conditions in children`s world. While the pupils write the teacher edits the slides series, so that only the chosen pictures are part of the second version.
The pupils read their text aloud, when their picture appears. The speak to the pictures may vary in length, in form, and in content - from a factual characterized account to a more lyrical description.
While the pictures are still on the retina, and the words still hang in the air, together you may talk about the pictures and the texts compared to how children`s conditions are in the world in other respects. What did not get into our edited version, which other stories and accounts do the pupils know? What role can you play yourself, even if you do not choose yourself, where you are born? Which values have we forgotten in our part of the world, and what may we learn from other people? Here again the starting point is the pupils` knowledge, and in that way you can travel widely around the world.

Why?
The discussion about children`s different conditions, depending on the place where they are born, can be followed up in the cartoon "Why". It gives an idea of how children under different circumstances grow up with dreams and visions about education, peace, and food security. They are needs we all have, dreams we all wish may come through. In the film we see how things go wrong when the dreams are shattered because of poverty, war, and drought. Circumstances we only know from the media. The film also suggests that people in the more privileged world may be brought to understanding and action.
It is quite clear that the pupils give some answers to the headline. Here again you may focus on the role you can play yourself. Not only in relation to the place where you are born, but also in relation to people somewhere else on the globe, who need our active action. In that connection you may refer to the organizations, which help people around the world and the laws and conventions , which try to change the conditions for those who are worst off. In our connection The UN Children`s Convention is introduced here. The teaching material contains a popularized, shortened, and illustrated version of The Children`s Convention.

The Children`s Convention in children height.
A boy looks through a weaved grating. He has fled from a life as a child worker. One of the 200 million boys and girls all over the world who are exploited to work contrary to the Convention. He has had to live in the street until he was taken to centre for street children.
A video tells the fictitious story about the child worker and street child Pajul plus the story about the fictitious country in South East Asia, where the story takes place.There are no elements in the fiction which may not have taken place, or which do take place in reality.It gives the liberty of mixing some facts and the possibility of examining the situation of several different countries with regard to children`s rights and conditions. In the story Pajul is sewing footballs. He has been sold to a workshop, because the family could not feed all the children. He tells his story, about his situation here and now, and what he dreams for the future.
So we provide an opportunity of considering children`s rights from an individual child`s point of view. We have seen how it can be more motivating for pupils to read The Children`s Convention wearing a particular child´s glasses and from a single story.

And what has that got to do with football?
We chose to let the child worker Pajul sew footballs, because it is a product which is close to Danish pupils. We had not thought of Select Sport as manufacturers of footballs until we happened to watch an interview on television with the general manager Lars Petersen. He told that they did not use children in the production in Parkistan , on the contrary the factory helped the employees` children with schooling. We tried to procure this interview, because it showed that a Danish owned firm did something active as to abolishing child work, and then it had something to do with football. We called Lars Petersen, who was most obliging, but he preferred to give us a new interview with time to explain, how their production went on, and in what way they were involved in the help to children`s schooling. The television had not given him a chance to do that. The programme was not cut to the satisfaction of the firm.
We got an interview plus film from the project, which besides help to the schooling of the employees` children also includes medical help. Each year the firm gives a help of 600.000 kr. which are of benefit to the 1000 - 1500 employees` nearest families.
This number in proportion to the one million footballs, which are manufactured, gives an amount of 60 øre pr. football. The amount is not put on the selling price. A programme like this you can either use or leave out. At a teacher`s course recently we had invited Lars Petersen to tell about the project, but he also told how difficult it is to get a mistaken programme on the television denied in a proper way. The programme and the retraction were put against his documentation, and it became an interesting example of the means of the media. 

Best at home?
Even if we at regular intervals are appointed to be one of the happiest people in the world , and even if Denmark may formally live up to most articles in The UN Children`s Convention it does by no means mean that the conditions are perfect for children in Denmark in the final phase of what has been called the child`s century.

Why divorce?
The problems that some Danish children have to struggle with are desertion of care, incest, prostitution, suicide, anorexia, abuse of alcohol and narcotics…..continue the list yourself.
When we have chosen the divorce as subject in the second part of "The Game of Chances" it is because divorce is something Danish children experience themselves, know about, and is influenced by. The possibility of identifying oneself , familiarize oneself, and by that also take responsibility for changing the roles of the persons in the chosen divorce story, is larger than if we had chosen one of the problems on which the media focus a lot, but which fortunately most children do not know from their own experience.

Bolette`s story.
To move the pupils` focus from Pajul`s story in a South East Asian country to Bolette`s story in Denmark by way of introduction we work with different types of evaluation exercises, which are all about Danish children`s conditions: putting up one`s hand, taking a stand, and a four-corner exercise. After that the pupils get the following instruction:
Now we are going to take a closer look at a Danish girl`s conditions and rights by means of a role play. The persons are Bolette, Bolette`s mother and father, and Bolette`s class teacher(s). Bolette`s parents have been divorced a couple of years ago. Bolette`s father quickly moved in with a younger woman and her two children. Until now Bolette has lived with the parents in turns for one week at a time, but she is not very happy with that. In fact she has moved in with a girlfriend, and her class teacher has invited the family for an interview, because things are going badly at the school.
In groups of 4-5 you are now going to play Bolette, Bolette`s father, Bolette`s mother, and Bolette`s class teacher(s). You are at a meeting at the school, and you must try to find a solution to the problems. When the roles are distributed each person gets a piece of paper with a description of your opinion about the situation.
Then the roles are distributed, 4-5 persons in each group: Bolette, Bolette`s mother, Bolette`s father, Bolette`s class teacher(s). One class teacher tries to control the conversation and find a solution to the problems. The other teacher is assistant, observer, and the one who writes down the plan of action.All groups play the play at the same time. Perhaps the groups are placed in different rooms. The play ends with each group finding a suggestion for a solution/a plan of action, which the teacher/teacher number two writes down.

You play a role

Each group presents their results - the suggestions are discussed in plenum. It is a good idea to sit in a circle.Then it is discussed in plenum: What rights are violated, and what needs do Bolette have? Discuss briefly in the groups in the light of the Convention, write down, and present in plenum:
In which areas are Danish children`s rights violated?

- Which differences and similarities are there between Pajul`s and Bolette`s rights and needs?

- How will you bring up your future children, what will you attach weight to in the upbringing?

- Where can you apply if you have problems as a child or a young person in Denmark to day?

It is of course of central importance that the pupils through the role play and the following discussion experience that even though chances apparently have played a part in both Pajul`s and Bolette`s story, it is still important how they react and which choices they make. No matter how difficult the situation may seem, we do not have to lean back as passive spectators to our own fate. We always have the possibility of exerting at least a little influence on our conditions and play a small part in the game of chances, among other things by using our rights. It requires a knowledge of among other things children`s rights. We hope that "The Game of Chances" may help to extend people`s knowledge of UN Children`s Convention, and hopefully the insight can lead to action. However limited the consequences of our actions will become, they may help to improve the conditions for children - both abroad and at home.

The Game of Chances" is developed by The Danish Centre for Human Rights and The National Innovative Centre for General Education and financed by Danida. The material is used at the course about Children`s Rights and Conditions.