Child Friendly Village Campaign in Nepal

Child Friendly Village Campaign in Nepal Project

Introduction

A novel concept of Child Friendly Village to empower parents and communities for ensuring children rights to education and freedom from the exploitation of child labor, trafficking, school dropout as well as child marriages is being implemented by BASE in Rapti Sonari Rural Municipality of Banke district. The project is financially supported by Kailash Satyarthy Children Foundation (KSCF), US since Nov. 2018. This project is being closely coordinated with local government for reaching to neediest children through advocacy, lobby, social mobilization, service delivery and empowerment. The participation of children is strongly encouraged as they are the future of the community, village as well as nation. The major interventions prioritized in the project are; development of child friendly communities, united children in to clubs and network, stop exploitation, enforce laws and lobby the government. Currently we are working in 80 villages organizing 1200 members in 80 BMG (Bal Mitra Gaun) committees, 1200 members in children clubs and 135 members in 9 ward level children network.

In order to counter those interventions, the capacity of parents and children have been enhances. Neediest and out of school children have been distributed with educational materials so that they can continue their education. The BMG committees, children clubs, network and BASE committees are mobilized to ensure child safety. IEC have played effective role in awareness raising. Migrant registers maintained in the villages record about the trafficking and report to concerned authorities. Collaborative actions for children with local government have been supportive to double impact in the community. BASE has successfully lobbied Government of Province no. 5, Ministry of Social Development (MoSD) to bring child protection bill which has been passed by Provincial Assembly and approved by Provincial Governor on 4th of June 2019. Child protection guideline for Raptisonari Rural Municipality (RSRM) has also been drafted.

The development objective of the project is: to eliminate child labor and human trafficking from the village by establishing system at villages by forming child friendly villages and to ensure that all children are attending school.

Major activities

• Develop Bal Mitra Gaun; Formation of children clubs and BMG committees, Orientation about the concept of BMG, children rights to clubs, network and committees, Election of children to form ward level children network.
• Advocacy and lobby; Policy advocacy at province level, campaigns through wall paintings, hoarding board display with informative messages, street drama, video show.
• Capacity building; training to staffs and children, coordination with local government, review meetings, sharing learning meetings and monitoring evaluation.