Why only focus on Mountain Children? How are they more marginalized than children living in poverty or in remote areas anywhere else?
Mountain children around the world face similar conditions and obstacles in their lives. The mountains provide a common ground on which children from diverse socioeconomic, religious, cultural and linguistic backgrounds can meet and work towards solving problems they all share as well as their shared responsibility for preserving their mountains and ecosystems.

But even as we focus on mountain communities, the vision the young members of the MCF shows a desire to improve the lives of all children. (Please see the MCF declaration.) In other places children are already forming children's parliaments and other child-focused groups; but in the mountains such networking is still rare. We envision the MCF as one (mountain) stream that feeds into the Global Movement for Children. Ultimately, we hope similar platforms can be built for other groups of children. And we invite all children, even if they don't live in the mountains, to raise their voices and speak out on behalf of young people.

How will the MCF grow?
The strength of the MCF lies in its ability to create leaders who will then influence other children. We have seen that when these young people experience the power of working together and see their efforts bear fruit (often for the first time in their lives), they automatically start talking to other children about the MCF. It is, after all, a process that may take a generation or two or three before the participation of children in everyday development of their communities and regions becomes part of the way things happen.

At present our focus is on building and strengthening the children’s groups [known variously as chapters, PABAMs and bal panchayats (children's parliaments)], increasing our network of organizations that work with children, and building bridges between the children, organizations and other entities such as government, funders, businesses, etc. As the children’s groups become stronger and more active, the MCF can help them find and connect to the resources they need to achieve the goals they have set.

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Can something so unstructured really work?

The MCF is of necessity unstructured, for it is the young people of the mountains who must determine what they want to change. It’s easy to make a structured project that assembles the children and tells them what to do. But too often the effect of such programs ends with the project itself. The mission of the MCF is to help the children themselves identify, prioritize and address the problems they face. And, as the base of the MCF grows, we believe a strongly centralized structure would only become cumbersome and inhibit the free-flow of ideas and action. It would also drain our energy and resources towards maintaining the MCF structure rather than helping the children work towards their goals.

Our work is to create genuine leadership among the young people by helping them realize just how much they can achieve when they work together, creating a platform from which they can communicate even without being in the same place, and by amplifying their voices so they can be heard the world over. And we have not been disappointed. Please see the MCF chapters page and the MCF focus pages for some examples of what the young people of the MCF are doing.

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Does the MCF have an age limit?
During the ICMC, the founding members of the MCF determined that the age limit would be 18, except for founding members who would be a part of the MCF until age 21. (Please see the MCF declaration.) But the MCF would not exclude young people once they reach the age of 18. As the alumni of the MCF, they will be responsible for supporting and guiding their chapters. MCF members have already stated an interest in promoting vocational and adult education and one of our areas of emphasis is on helping young adults access skill development workshops and continuing education through open university programs such as that offered by Indira Gandhi National Open University.

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Who is behind the MCF?
The MCF is a network of organizations and children’s groups working in their own areas to further the role of young people in setting agendas for development and bringing children and the mountains back from the periphery of the global mindset to the center of the discussions.

The MCF desk in Dehradun acts as a communication center for the Forum, networking between the children’s groups, organizations and external agencies, organizing workshops and trainings, and managing the communication tools such as the PABAM newsletter, the website, and in future, radio broadcasts.

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Is the MCF a funding agency?
No. While we do try to pull together resources for workshops (i.e. to defray expenses such as transportation and lodging for the participants), or to help our partner NGOs put together an activity for the children, the MCF is not a funding agency. We do not pay our partners to be a part of the MCF. Rather, the strength of the MCF lies in the network we are building and in the forum that is being created through the energies and efforts of the children, thereby redefining together the way we perceive children and always revisiting the way we work with them.

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How is the MCF funded?
The MCF receives support from individuals and other organizations. To learn more about how you can support the MCF, please contact us at mcfglobal@gmail.com

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How is the MCF sustainable?
The MCF is driven by the energy of the children. As long as the children see the MCF as a way to enhance their lives, the MCF will be propelled forward. We see it as a cycle: The more empowered, active and productive the young people are, the better the community will fare and the greater will be the interest and drive to sustain the MCF.

Because the MCF reflects the needs and voices of the children and their communities, and because of the remarkable network that is taking form, the MCF can also begin to generate funds by helping government and other organizations better understand what they need to do and how it is being carried out.

Furthermore, members of the MCF have already shown that they can generate funds and support from within their own communities to support the work they have undertaken. At present, as we strive to build up the base of young people connected with the MCF, we need resources to cover the children’s travel and lodging expenses as they attend workshops and trainings, to run the MCF office, print and distribute the PABAM newsletter, send facilitators into the field, etc. But as the MCF grows, our hope and aim is that the need for outside funding will be reduced to a slow, catalytic stream, while the energy and reach of the children will allow us to form networks and partnerships that can use existing resources to support the MCF.

Though it may never be entirely self-sustaining in a "status quo" sense, we believe that the very fact that the MCF focuses on networking rather than infrastructure reduces our overhead and makes the MCF more sustainable. The MCF is a movement that is determined to ensure the Global Movement for Children goes beyond the rhetoric.

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Have a question we haven't answered? Write to us at mcfglobal@gmail.com