Bellem tried to hold on to the moon-shaped pumpkin slices, but they kept slipping out of her hand.

"This is the only place I can cook because my mother never lets me," she said. "I ask her almost every day, 'Can I cook with you?' but she says, 'No, I don't feel like it.'"

Bellem's cooking club for seven- to 12-year-olds is sponsored by a child protection group in Cologne. The idea is to offer parents some relief so that they don't feel too burdened to take proper care of their children.

10 percent neglect rate in Germany

One in 10 children in Germany is severely neglected, according to some statistics. That might mean they don't get enough to eat or aren't taken care of when they're sick. Or perhaps they freeze in the winter because their parents don't dress them warmly enough.

"Often these parents were neglected as children themselves," said Renate Blum-Maurice from the Cologne child protection group. Ultimately, many factors can play a role, she added -- the marriage gets rocky, the baby is born handicapped, or dad loses his job.

The United Nations initiated International Children's Day in 1954 to draw attention to the dangers children face, including neglect. It is now celebrated annually in more than 145 countries, in German-speaking countries primarily on Sept. 20.

Child poverty rising disproportionately

In developing countries, where millions of children face extreme poverty, malnutrition and war, the situation is even more drastic. But even in Germany, more than 50 years after International Children's Day was founded, some 2.5 million children and youths live off of social welfare, according to the federal child protection agency.

UNICEF, which spearheads the annual day of recognition, estimates that poverty among children in Germany has increased disproportionately to the rest of the population over the past decade.

Bellem and her cooking partners don't live in dire need. They are not among the world's 2.1 billion children and youths suffering through a life of extreme poverty. And the child protection group in Cologne is doing what it can to keep it that way.