They are serious lessons, but they have been taught in a simple manner. In an effort to encourage children to make their voices heard and express their concerns, ChildFund India has been working closely with children to empower them. “This is what we have been doing for 60 years and here in India we are focusing on health, education and community leadership,” said Ann Lynam Goddard, president, Childfund International who is in Bengaluru to mark the 60th anniversary of their presence here.
She feels that community leadership is essential in order for children to be sensitised so that they can speak up for themselves. “So we have taken up intensive multimedia training for children in rural areas of the state and a group of 16 youth in Kolar who were trained, actually went on to make an audio-visual film depicting the problems of their village. They now continue to capture specific issues of their villages and mobilise the community to find joint solutions to their problems. It is impressive to see how the concept of community leadership is working wonders,” said Ann. Their audio-visual film is on the lack of basic sanitation facilities and corruption at the local level. The film has been an eye-opener for villagers and some community leaders have been so influenced by this film that they are actually brainstorming on ways to address these issues.
“This is just one of our initiatives towards empowering children. We are also focusing on the Right to Education to ensure that each and every child gets this basic right of access to education, because even now we see girls in places like Kolar getting married at the age of 16 and 17. So we are trying our best to check on the girl child dropout rate,” said Dola Mohpatra, Country head, Child Fund India. They are looking at identifying volunteers from within the community who will go out campaigning for a child’s right to education. “If the community sees a girl stand up and speak out for the cause and do well for herself by pursuing higher studies, then they will definitely understand the importance of education,” added Mohpatra.
