My grandmother wanted us, her grandchildren, to do well at school. My mother attached great importance to good manners. I want my children to get on well with their peers and be happy and contented with their lives. A good report and impeccable manners are important to me, but they are not at the top of my list of priorities.
When my grandmother was a child, the First World War raged across Europe. Together with some of her family, she fled from the Czech Republic to Vienna. My mother had just started school when the Second World War broke out. She took responsibility for her younger brother at an early age. I was born in the middle of the economic miracle and only know hunger and need from hearsay.
In "Childhood Today" we asked Brigitte Singer, David Dzidziguri, Karl Muller and Victor Painadath (from Austria, Georgia, South Africa and India respectively) how childhood is regarded in their native cultures and how this is reflected in their own life histories.
The four basic principles of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child are the "Signpost for the Future of our Children". Peter Dixon, advisor on children's rights, explains what effect children's rights (could) have on our day-to-day lives.
What is left of childhood for a child who is forced to live on the streets? Claudia Mödlagl worked in a Brazilian project for street children and experienced first hand what it means to be a child in the street jungle.
In "Children - vulnerable or violated" Maria Mercedes Paredes describes the situation of street children in Columbia and the work of the SOS Social Centre "Nueva Vida".
Unaccompanied minors who have fled their native countries are also "Children without Rights and without Protection". Jyothi Kanics highlights the violation of human and children's rights suffered by unaccompanied minors.
In an interview with Eva Kieczka, we asked what significance children's rights have in Venezuela, what the SOS Children's Villages Venezuela experienced when implementing them, and what projects exist to support these rights.
We asked colleagues from different countries to pose the following questions to children and adults from SOS Children's Villages: What is better - being a child or an adult? What do adults remember when they think about their childhood? What do children expect from adulthood? Extracts from the answers are in "To me, childhood means...".
"The Children's Parliament" focuses on an extraordinary project in Rajasthan in India. TV producers Anja Freyhoff and Thomas Uhlmann report on the life and work of the young parliamentarians.