Voices of the Future

by Irina Bokova

  Contents

  Foreword

  by Irina Bokova, Director General of UNESCO

  The Tree of Hope

  by Kehkashan Basu

  Illustrated by Giovana Medeiros

  The Epic Eco-Inventions

  by Jona David

  Illustrated by Marco Guadalupi

  The Fireflies after the Typhoon

  by Anna Kuo

  Illustrated by Mona Meslier Menuau

  The Forward and Backward City

  by Diwa Boateng

  Illustrated by Jhonny Nunez

  The Visible Girls

  by Tyronah Sioni

  Illustrated by Giovana Medeiros

  The Sisters’ Mind Connection

  by Allison Hazel Lievano-Gomez

  Illustrated by Jhonny Nunez

  The Voice of an Island

  by Lupe Va’ai

  Illustrated by Marco Guadalupi

  The Species-Saving Time Team

  by Lautaro Real

  Illustrated by Mona Meslier Menuau

  What are Children’s Rights?

  What are Sustainable Development Goals?

  Voices of Future Generations

  Foreword

  This book provides a glimpse into the ways in which future generations conceive of – and have the ability to use – their voices for positivity and growth. It allows readers to understand the boundless possibilities for children to influence their communities and how children can view themselves as agents of growth.

  In each story, Voices of the Future stresses the importance of creativity for children and lets them know how vital their imaginings can be for their families, communities, and the world in which they live. These stories invite readers into the imaginings of other children to let them understand how others see the world. At the same time, they open readers’ minds to new possibilities and give them a platform for their own creative endeavours. Each story notes the importance of teamwork in identifying problems and working to overcome them. It draws the reader into worlds that are better for everyone because people have handled problems together and have used their collective creativity to create new solutions.

  Voices of the Future highlights the value of education as an essential vehicle for addressing real-world problems such as sustainable development, violence against women, discrimination against those with disabilities, intolerance, and environmental destruction. It allows readers to view education as the basis on which to build a strong and vibrant society that can celebrate differences and share in accomplishments. The stories remind readers that education is a life-long process and that it does not end with each school day.

  And Voices of the Future stresses the importance of listening to future generations in order to benefit the current and future world. From creating life-altering inventions to rebuilding communities and eco-systems, the children in each story demonstrate that their ideas and dreams are more than the stuff of the playground but rather can change communities in meaningful ways.

  The authors of each story are to be commended for showing each reader the power and positivity of future generations.

  Irina Bokova

  Director General of UNESCO

  Welcome to the United Arab Emirates!

  The author of this story is Kehkashan Basu. She lives in the United Arab Emirates.

  Kehkashan is passionate about working for peace and sustainability. She was born on 5th June, which is also World Environment Day, so she feels that she just had to grow up to be an eco-warrior.

  Kehkashan founded a youth organisation called Green Hope Foundation, which works to help the environment. It now has over 1,000 members across the Middle East, India, Brazil, USA and Canada!

  Kehkashan enjoys singing, reading, travelling, writing, painting and playing the piano and guitar.

  In a small village on the edge of a vast, harsh desert lived a little girl, Khadra, and her mother. The sun beat down unforgivingly on her village from early morning until night, soaking up all the moisture. The heat was especially unforgiving in the middle of the day and drove everyone indoors.

  Like any other little girl, Khadra hated being cooped up inside the house and wanted desperately to play outside with her friends, but her mother would have none of it. She was afraid that Khadra would get heat stroke if she spent the afternoon outside.

  So, Khadra spent the long afternoons staring out of the window at the undulating sands which shimmered in the heat-haze, and waiting for dusk so that she could go out and play.

  She longed for the weather to change so that she could spend more time outdoors. She loved her home and village but wished that it was a little less hot and sunny. Little did she realise that very soon she would have the answer to her dreams.

  One morning, Khadra was woken up early by her mother, who asked her to go to the village well to fetch water. Water was very precious in their village and the single well at the village square was its only source.

  Every day, there were long queues of residents at the well, waiting for a turn to haul up their daily requirement of water. On that day, Khadra’s mother asked her to go early and get some water because she was expecting a guest at their house and wanted to finish cooking in time for his arrival.

  It was a chore which Khadra enjoyed as she met most of her friends at the well. She also loved the splashy sound of water and its cool, soothing feel. The well was very deep and looked a bit scary as she peered over the parapet.

  That day, she hurriedly collected the water, slung the bucket on her back and hurried back home as she, too, was excited at the prospect of meeting the guest. Khadra did not really know who he was, except that he was her mother’s distant cousin who was a traveller of sorts. Khadra loved to listen to stories, especially of distant, exotic, faraway lands, and she hoped that her visiting uncle would have a tale or two for her.

  Khadra’s uncle finally arrived in the hot afternoon, carrying a very big bag on his back. He had a craggy but friendly face with the most twinkly eyes Khadra had ever seen. Kahdra was very intrigued by him.

  She couldn’t wait for their meal to be over, as she wanted to hear stories of her uncle’s travels. She was also very curious to find out what was inside her uncle’s heavy bag which he had placed carefully by the door. Finally, they finished lunch and her mother went into the kitchen to clean up, warning Khadra to not pester her uncle and to allow him to rest.

  Her uncle smiled at the crestfallen look on Khadra’s face and whispered to her that he wasn’t really tired and would love to chat with her. Delighted, Khadra started asking him to tell her about his most recent adventures.

  Her uncle said that he had been to another part of the world which had the most amazing forests and trees. He described how, many years ago, that part of the world was also barren and dry, much like Khadra’s village, but somehow the local people had found a way of changing all that.

  They had found a plant which could grow and flourish with very little water. Every time there was a happy occasion, like a birthday or a wedding, they planted a sapling to celebrate the event.

  The intention was to encourage people to plant more trees. Soon, over time, the whole area became green. As if to prove his point, Khadra’s uncle asked her to bring his bag. Telling her to be careful, he invited her to open it. With excited fingers, Khadra untied the strings, and to her surprise there was a small sapling in a pot. The plant had very strange leaves... thick and leathery.

  Her uncle said that the leaves were amazing and they stored water. This was the plant’s speciality. The plant was capable of saving every drop of available water from its surroundings, thus enabling it to survive long periods of drought. Khadra’s uncle said that this tree was a gift from him to her. He told he
r that her name meant green in Arabic and that maybe she was destined to be the person to seed her village’s landscape with the colour green.

  Khadra was overjoyed. This was the most exotic gift she had ever received. She gave her uncle a big hug and ran to her mother to share her excitement.

  Before he left, her uncle explained to Khadra how to plant and take care of the tree. He told her to find a place in her back yard which was in the shade and to plant it there. He also told Khadra to save a mug of water from her bath every day and use it to water the plant. It needed very little water, he explained, as it survived on the morning dew.

  As he departed, he reminded Khadra that once the tree had grown, she should collect the seeds from the plant’s fruits. He told her to give these seeds to her friends on their birthdays, and to encourage them to also plant the trees. He hoped Khadra would take on the responsibility to live up to her name.

  That evening, Khadra gathered her friends in her back yard and narrated to them the events of the afternoon. She showed them the plant which she had been given by her uncle. Together they dug a hole and planted the sapling.

  Time passed and Khadra’s sapling flowered and grew into a large, imposing tree. Its branches and leaves offered shade during even the harshest of summers. No longer did Khadra have to stay cooped up indoors during the afternoons. She, along with her friends, spent happy hours sitting under the tree’s shade or up in its leafy branches.

  Birds that had never before been seen in the village miraculously appeared and nested in the tree. Their morning songs now woke Khadra up every day.

  Following her uncle’s instructions, her friends plucked the tree’s berries and planted the seeds in their own back yards.

  The village elders looked on indignantly at the children’s antics, with some shaking their heads as if to say that it was all a waste of time. No one noticed at first, but soon it did seem as if the evenings were becoming cooler. Some of the villagers even saw clouds on the horizon – something which had not been seen in many years.

  The back yard of each house in the village now had one or more trees, in various stages of bloom, each cared for by one of the children.

  Khadra could no longer see the harsh desert sands from her room’s back window. Her tree of hope, with its lush green foliage and chirping birds, offered a beautiful green vista instead.

  Then, finally, the unthinkable happened: storm clouds filled up the sky and heavy drops of rain splattered on the parched earth. The whole village came out to feel the rain water wash away the dust and sand grains which had engulfed the villagers for so long.

  Khadra and her friends danced for joy and drank the cool rain water until they could drink no more. Then Khadra ran to her tree and hugged its trunk tightly to say thank you. It had changed her village into an oasis. It was indeed the tree of hope which had converted a barren land into a living green landscape.

  Welcome to Canada!

  The author of this story is Jona David. He lives in Canada and also Cambridge, UK, where he studies at King’s College School. He is Canadian, British, Swiss and German.

  When Jona was seven, he was told he had dyslexia. He was determined to overcome it by memorising the 8,000 most common words in English, and he wrote his first story as a way of proving he had done so. He has now written several books, won awards, and has had his writing translated into four languages.

  Along with his little brother Nico, Jona volunteers as a UN Child Ambassador, and has spoken at important conferences all round the world.

  Jona enjoys writing, flute, polo, particle physics, chess, maths and studying nature in the wild.

  Chapter 1

  In a house by a lake in a very green town, there lived a boy and his little brother. Secretly, the boy was a mad genius inventor. But no one knew this – not even his little brother at first. The boy told no one about his inventions. He did not want them to be scared or to laugh at him.

  His parents would sometimes tell him off when he came home with strange stains and tears in his clothes. Once, they even found a large piece of delphiniorite (which was an element he had just discovered) in his sports bag.

  The boy and his little brother went to what the neighbours called, ‘a terribly good school’. They studied: maths, astrophysics, acrobatics, chemistry and biology, care of endangered species, virtual reality programming, telescope repair, geography, archery, music and gargoyle maintenance.

  They also studied lots and lots of languages. The boy’s little brother was joyful. He loved music and spoke many languages.

  For birthdays and other celebrations, the little brother received many toys from his big brother. At first, he did not realise that they were special. He thought his big brother had found his presents in the toy shops! He got...

  1. A pet robot spider that turns invisible.

  BLUEPRINT NOTES: PET ROBOT SPIDER

  •Force-field to bend light for invisibility effect

  •Positronic brain

  •Tiny nebula gas fuel cells

  •Special steel and crazy glue web spinner

  2. An anti-gravity train that builds its own tracks in the air.

  BLUEPRINT NOTES: ANTI-GRAVITY TRAIN

  •Super light hyper-plastic

  •Nanotech rods that rebuild and fold track

  •Remote-control pointer for directing train

  •Nebula gas fuel cells

  3. An ultra-light eco-spaceship that paints words on the ceiling.

  BLUEPRINT NOTES: ECO-SPACESHIP

  •Spray paint (evaporating ink)

  •Super-cooled ink tank (non-evaporating)

  •Positronic robot brain with language components

  •Nebula gas fuel cells

  4. A light-maze that makes organic sweets.

  BLUEPRINT NOTES: LIGHT MAZE

  •Transparent glass for laser-guiding tubes

  •Circular base and sweet maker

  •Delphiniorite and hyper-plastic for positronic scrambler unit

  •Nebula gas, metal and delphiniorite glass

  At school, the children loved the little brother’s stories about his presents. Everyone thought the stories just came from his imagination. Everyone, that is, apart from the school bully.

  Chapter 2

  On their first day after Christmas holidays, the boys had their maths, science and English lessons.

  The little brother’s pet robot spider had followed him to school – but he didn’t realise, because it was invisible. The spider robot went to all his classes. It particularly liked gymnastics.

  When the little brother and his little friends were on their way home, the spider appeared and did some tricks for them. But when the school bully saw the robot spider, he threatened them and it. The little ones were scared, but they tried to be brave. They called for help.

  Luckily, the mad genius inventor boy saw that his little brother was in trouble. Quickly, he activated a force field watch that he had just invented. It spun out, acting as a shield, driving the bully away. The friends were amazed!

  For the first time, the little brother started to see that maybe his toys were rather… unusual.

  After the bully had been driven away, the brothers invited their brave friends for a picnic. They took their canoe out to an island in the middle of the lake. They had a great time there, playing hide-and-seek with the pet robot spider.

  While they played, the little brother noticed a lever on the side of the island’s apple tree. ‘I’ll come back soon and investigate’, he thought.

  Chapter 3

  The inventor boy had a habit of disappearing for hours at a time, especially in the early mornings when everyone else was asleep.

  The little brother decided to investigate the lever in the tree. So one afternoon, after school, he and his pet robot spider snuck away. When he got to the tree, he pulled the lever.

  A secret door opened up, with a marvellous glass elevator leading underground. As the little brother went deep into the Earth, a hug
e laboratory became visible. It was full of physics, chemistry and biology equipment, as well as many half-built inventions.

  There were…

  1. Personal jet-packs with solar propellors.

  BLUEPRINT NOTES: JET PACKS

  •Solar propellors for recharging while flying

  •Control belt for direction

  •Special sun-protection goggles with infra-red for night flying

  •Hydro-dynamic underwater mode, with retractable scuba gear

  2. A lightning re-charger that could charge non-electrical things.

  BLUEPRINT NOTES: LIGHTNING RE-CHARGER

  •Lightning meltdown protector shells

  •Calibrator energy field matcher to avoid circuit burnout

  •Weather vane lightning attractor

  •Lightning storage cells

  3. A magma drill that uses geothermal power for construction projects.

  BLUEPRINT NOTES: GEOTHERMAL MAGMA DRILL

  •Delphiniorite and diamond super-hard mobile drill-head

  •Hyper-sonic boosters to soften materials prior to drilling

  •Magma heat treatment to soften rock

  •Geothermal super-conductor roots for power source

  4. A zoo of mechanical animals that can build their own nano-habitats.

  BLUEPRINT NOTES: NANO-ZOO

  •Force-fields for habitats

  •Nano-tech frame and tiny coloured marbles for building habitats inside globes

  •Basic positronic units for learning dances, sounds and habitat-building skills

  There was even a special nebula gas fuel cell invention. The fuel cell machine, which looked like a large computer with a satellite dish, could directly harness energy from the universe and store it in renewable energy cells, with clouds of swirling purple light.