This anthem features some of the most oppressed children in the world - those often forced to serve as child soldiers, labourers, and brides - rising above these dire conditions and standing up to their oppression. As we see the young, defiant expressions of the child heroes, powerful slam poetry reinforces their defiance. Punctuated by hard-hitting prose like: “Our lives are worth more than the pennies we’re paid, our lives are worth more than the clothing we made, our lives are worth more than the guns and grenades, our lives are worth more than just dying from AIDS” and “we’re not your cheap labour, we’re not your child brides, we’re not just poor kids with some flies in our eyes”, we bring the first Child Uprising to life.

Children are the most vulnerable group of people in the world. For many, their futures are limited by violence, illiteracy, and inequality. While the stats may seem difficult to believe, the reality is that 150 million boys and girls are engaged in child labour worldwide, 37,000 girls become child brides every day, and there are an estimated 300,000 child soldiers across the globe. But Right To Play empowers millions of children to rise above this oppression and these dire statistics. To show the world how powerful their work is, we created an Uprising that had never been seen before: The Child Uprising.

To show the world how Right To Play empowers children to rise above the most dire conditions imaginable, we brought The Child Uprising to life by showing our hero children as powerful and defiant uprisers. With this in mind, the video was shot with heroic slow-motion portraits mixed with gut-wrenching environmental shots, showcasing the children’s defiant expressions and complementing the powerful voiceover. To highlight the darkness and hopelessness of the situations these children are rising above, each scenario (child soldier, child marriage, child labour, child trafficking, etc.…) is horrifyingly authentic to the harrowing realities real children face every day. We casted local children (not actors), and in some cases flew in authentic talent to represent that scene most accurately. Because each child had their own history and story, their powerful expressions vividly bring The Child Uprising to life.