Summary: Nepalese children will converge on
Kathmandu to inform to make their
voices heard nationally and
internationally (with delegates
participating in the Special Session).
They will interact with the SS
delegates, mainstream media and
with general people from the stalls
on 10 and 11 Sept, in the fair venue.
Children's National Fair
10-11 September 2001
Kathmandu
A. Introduction
Save the Children (SC) Alliance is actively involved in Global
Movement for Children (GMC) and UN General Assembly Special
Session (UNGASS) on Children. The Alliance is working closely
with child clubs/groups. The Alliance members are supporting and
actively involved in organizing various activities with children in
Nepal. The activities and events to promote and support GMC
before, during and after UNGASS aims at creating a strong impact
on the national policies and making Nepali children's voices heard
in the international fora.
A big "Children's Fair" in Kathmandu is planned involving
children's groups coming from different parts of Nepal, especially
to influence the Nepali Delegates to the UNGASS (19-21
September 2001, New York) before they leave for New York. The
Nepali delegation to the UNGASS will include representatives of
the Government, I/NGOs and children's groups. There will be
interaction of children with the Nepali delegates and press during
the fair. All possible media channels will be mobilized to highlight
the programme in order to make the children's issues visible at all
levels. The programme is expected to make the delegates, media
and general more aware about Nepalese children's specific
issues, concerns and agenda directly from the specific groups of
children. The fail is expected to help the delegates to present
Nepali children's perspective in the Special Session. Similarly, it
will also help the civil society to create direct and indirect
pressure for the well being of children. Though this fair may not
have direct and substantial impact on the outcome document
prepared by the UN, it will influence the 10th National Plan of
Nepal as well as the national plan of action on children for the
next decade to be prepared by Government of Nepal.
We do not have a full-proof mechanism for making representation
of all Nepali children and such structure does not exist at present.
But, the NGOs and INGOs working with children in different parts
of the country have access to different types of children's groups
in terms of caste, gender, geographical areas, disability, etc. As a
result, participation of the representatives of non-homogenous
groups of children in different situations is possible.
There is a consortium of NGOs and INGOs working directly with
the children's clubs/groups in Nepal, called "Consortium of
Organizations working with Child Clubs". The Consortium is
planning to organize a children's fair involving children from
different parts of Nepal. As said above, each member of the
Consortium is working with various children's groups on various
issues. If we put them together then there is a possibility of
mixing up the issues with each other and loosing specific
attention. Children's groups may come up with general list of
issues, concerns and agenda that would not be very powerful
and impressive to the delegates as well as general public.
SC Alliance members have been working in partnership with
various children groups for various specific purposes, such as,
Bhutanese refugee children, slum children, protection from
HIV/AIDS, children in conflict with law, disabled children etc.
Similarly the Consortium has access to children's groups with
various issues/concerns. They will also bring children's groups
working with them to the fair. This would allow the delegates
and general public to have a broadened perspective on the
situation of Nepali children from various geographical regions and
children in different situations.
Hence, children's groups working with the SC Alliance members
(UK, Norway, US and Japan) and children from various child
clubs/groups from all regions will be participating in the fair.
Probably, it will be the best way to involve interested children's
groups and interested Consortium members to voice their specific
views to influence the Nepali delegates to the Special Session.
B. Objectives
Objectives of the fair are to
1. provide fora to children who are working on various issues to
voice their specific agenda to the Nepali delegates to the
UNGASS, media and general public before the Special Session
where head of the states/governments will be endorsing the new
agenda for children for the next decade;
2. provide opportunity to children to influence 10th National Plan
of Nepal and country's plan of action on children for the next
decade (to be prepared after endorsing the agenda for children);
3. create a base for establishing and strengthening better
accountability of the government bodies to the children of Nepal;
and;
4. influence general public as well as the policy makers for making
them more accountable and responsible towards well being of
children.
C. Activities/Processes
1. Before coming to the fair, each children's group participating in
the fair will be facilitated in their own communities to discuss
about their issues, concerns and agenda so that they can come
up with clear common opinions to share with the delegates. As
and where possible, children's groups could be also assisted to
prepare audio-visual materials as well as other forms of
expressions (theatres, songs, poems etc) to communicate clearly.
Children's groups will select their representatives participating for
fair and they are assisted in establishing stalls and required skills
to communicate their groups' views to the delegates and general
public.
2. The Consortium and the SC Alliance will be responsible for
identification and participation of the children's groups.
Organizations bringing the children to Kathmandu will also be
responsible for arranging group discussions and preparation in
the field, transportation and taking care of the children coming
from their project areas.
3. Invitations will be sent to the delegates, children, schools,
private sector, journalists and others.
4. A lot of publicity will be made about the fair in order to create
interest in the media and general public.
5. It is planned that the head of Nepali delegation to the UNGASS
will inaugurate the fair. Children will be at their respective stalls
and the delegates will visit the stalls one by one, listen to the
children and interact with them. Copies of materials prepared by
children will be handed over to the delegates so that they can
better prepare themselves.
6. Apart from the delegates, a group of journalists will also be
invited and will be briefed by children's groups about their issues,
concerns and agenda. It will, therefore get a lot of press
coverage. Children's groups will also share their issues, concerns
and agenda to the general public visiting the fair to create some
sort of pressure to delegates and make them think and work for
well being of children. The Media Coordinators for UNGASS and
GMC will be responsible for this.
7. In addition, child-friendly and extra curricular activities will also
be organized in the premises of the fair to ensure that the
children enjoy their time together and have an opportunity to
network, share and meet new friends.
D. Post Fair Activities
1. Kathmandu: There will be interaction programme with the
delegates after the Special Session, where the children will be
able to hear from the delegates what happened in New York,
learn what commitments they made, find out what their next
steps will be, as well as question them with regard to points of
interest to the children. All the children's groups participating in
the fair may not have chance to interact with delegates directly,
but mechanisms should be developed to update and inform them.
2. Districts: After the fair, children's groups will go back to their
respective in their groups in the districts and interact with
respective District Child Welfare Committees (DCWCs) about their
issues, concerns and agenda. A plan describing what, how and
when - will be made among children groups and DCWCs to
influence action plan of Nepal, as well as in their respective
districts.
3. Linkage with Change Makers: Children's groups will develop
linkage with the change maker children, corporate leaders and
the government officials for renewing their commitment.
F. Proposed Fare Period
The fair will take place in early September 2001 for two days. It
will take place on 10 and 11 September (about one week prior to
the departure of the Nepali delegates to New York to attend the
Special Session).
G. Venue
The fair will take place in Kathmandu, Nepal.
H. Participation
5 child representatives and one accompanying adult from each
regional children's fare organized by the Consortium (6 x 5 = 30
participants)
4 child representatives and one accompanying adult from each
issue based child group from all SC Alliance working areas (5 x
approx. 25 = 125 participants)
All together there will be about 150 children and 30
accompanying adults.
I. Preparation in the field
Field offices need to prepare the children's groups in the field
before participation in Kathmandu.
1. Organize separate group discussions for the separate specific
groups. That is, if there are more than one children's group
working with the field office (which will be participating in the
Kathmandu fair), each group needs to meet and discuss
separately.
2. In the field level, children's group discussions, group's common
issues, agenda and voices will be raised. They will come to
Kathmandu with a common vision and key messages for raising
their voices and interacting with the UNGASS delegates, media
and public.
3. Children will discuss and select two girls and two boys among
them for participation in the Kathmandu fair. Concerned field
offices need to support the groups to identify an accompanying
adult for each group.
4. Each group will have a small stall in the fair. The group will also
decide and prepare materials for exhibition in the fair (posters,
leaflets, audio/visual materials, photographs, diagrams etc).
Children can prepare short cultural programmes or creative
activities, such as, street theatre, theatre for development,
songs, poems, etc for presenting openly.
5. There will be an accompanying adult cum-translator/escort for
a group (e.g., disabled children might need sign language
interpreter).
6. Consortium and SC Alliance member organizations are
responsible for bringing children from their organizations in
Kathmandu and managing their accommodations in Kathmandu.
J. Preparation in Kathmandu
A group of people sat together and divided following
responsibilities for following persons:
Invitation: Ram Gopal Shakya and Anil Raghuvanshi (SC-UK) will
coordinate all necessary works for invitation.
Inauguration: Anil and Nupur Bhattacharya (SC-N) will design and
coordinate inauguration ceremony.
Stall Management: Shushila (Consortium), Javis Rana (SC-UK),
Gopini Pandey (SC-N) and Honey Malla (SC-US) have taken
responsibility of managing the stalls.
Organizing events: Anil, Chandrika Khatiwada (SC-N), Udaya
Laxmi Pradhanang (SC-US) and Pralhad Dhakal (SC-UK) will
coordinate the tasks for organizing events for two-day fair in
Kathmandu.
Media Coordination: Pushkar Mathema and Sunam Tenzin (GMC
Media Coordinators) have taken responsibility to coordinate with
media for publicity of the event and organize an interaction
between children and media people.
Accommodations and transportation in Kathmandu: Each alliance
member and Consortium is responsible for the accommodations
and transportation (field to Kathmandu and Hotel to the fair
venue during the event) of children and escorts. Nava Raj and
Javis (SC-UK), Gopini (SC-N) Shushila (Consortium) and Udaya
Laxmi (SC-US) will be responsible for this.
Association: Save the Children Alliance/Consortium of Organizations working with Child Clubs