Mountain Children’s Foundation
Changing the way the world perceives and works with children

Uttarkashi |Workshops

Strengthening of baal panchayats

Partner Organisation : HENSR
               District: Uttarkashi

          Supported by : Give2Asia

Workshop Report

May 24th and 25th, 2010

MCF conducted a 2 day workshop on strengthening the baal panchayat in the village  of Nagan with their partner organization HENSR and with the support of Give2Asia. 34 children attended the workshop which commenced with a few games so that the children could introduce and familiarize themselves with each other.

Nagan is a village situated in the Uttarkashi District near Badkot on the road to Yamnotri Dham. It is about 3 kms away from the main yatra road .Since the bridge over the river Yamuna has not been constructed as yet, people have to travel by foot to the village. The village is large and has 113 families. The houses built there old and uniquely designed using only wood and stones with no mortar but a paste of pulses instead. These houses have borne natural calamities over the centuries and have not been destroyed.

MCF along with its partner organization Hensr conducted a two day workshop with the Children’s Group ( Baal Panchayat ) of the village. The main aim was to enhance the level of interaction amongst the village children and the elders of the village and how the children’s group could help spread awareness amongst other children of the village.

Day 1 :
The workshop took place in a government school on the first day where 34 children participated .The village Pradhan (Headman)  as well as teachers were present during the workshop.
The day started with an introduction game which was appreciated by the  children. This was then followed by another fun filled games.

Deepshikha and Devraj both said  – “We liked this activity because girls and boys played together“
Sumit said – “I am happy because our team won”

The games were followed by a discussion on the following topics:

• What is the Children’s group ?
• What are the advantages of the Children’s Group ?
• What are the activities conducted by the Children’s group ?

The components necessary for a children’s group were explained through an interactive game. Each child had to pick out the right components which would help their group become stronger.
The issue that were brought up are as follows:

1. What is a group?
2. Whose group is it ?
3. How can children make the group stronger ?
4. What should be kept in mind while working in a group?
5. What are the causes which lead to breaking of the group?

An enthusiastic discussion then took place where children described the different types of groups they had in their village  

This was followed by a story told by Aditi - the main theme of the story was unity and strength in numbers, emphasizing that the children should work collectively.

Different games organized to get the children to understand:

1. ensure the children learnt to follow rules.
2. To be able to be patient and understand each other better.
3. Remove any sort of apprehension and express themselves freely.
4. Expose the talent of each child.

The second half of the day focused on importance of elder family members .

1. What kind of relationship the children and elders shared?
2. What can be learnt from the elders in the village?
3. How can the children  help them ?
4. How can the Childrens Group build better relationship with their elders?

The children present were divided into 6 groups and were instructed to make a work plan .
                        

Day 2 :
A quick review was done of the activities and ideads that were shared with the children on the previous day.  The children explained what they had understood about their own groups and the basic rules and regulations that should govern it.

The children were then asked to write down there work plan on how they could bridge the gap between themselves and the elders of their village – group wise presentations were made to the rest of the children and the facilitators. The Pradhan of the village was also listening to the presentations. The main points of the presentations were:

• To ask their grand parent about information of when they were young.
• To help their grand parents.
• To say ‘ pranaam” (greet) theri elders on the way to school and back from school.
• To give their grandparents their medicine when they are unwell.
• To get sweet for their grand parents from the fair.
• To take theri grandparents for gentle walks in the evenings.
• Every Monday they would sing songs for their grandparents.
• They would help the elders in their work.
• They would help our garnd parents have a bath everyday.
• They would ask their grand parents about medicinal plants that were used.

Gram Pradhan Mr. Jogendra Singh Chauhan appreciated the workshop and also consented to support the children in any possible way. He talked about another grave issue haunting the village, which was soil pollution. He encouraged the children to collect all the polythene lying around and promised to get two pits dug to bury all the natural waste in one and the plastic in the other. He also mentioned that trees should not be cut from the roots because that causes soil erosion and encouraged the children to plant at least one tree each. The children were happy to see the Pradhan supporting them.

The Mountain Children's Foundation,63-A Vyom Prasth, G.M.S Road,Dehradun, Uttarakhand 248001, India
Phone: 91-135-6532937 Email: mcfglobal @ mymountains.org