Recent activities:

September 2005: We received the following letter from Dhani Ram Varma, of the Bal Panchayat Jagri:

Our Bal Panchayt (Jagri, Gairsain) is helping support our community. Our Bal Panchayat was formed on the 17th October, 2001. We have 27 members. We meet on one Sunday of every month and talk about the problems in our village. All the members give their suggestions and support for how we may solve these problems. We have collected Rs. 12,000 in our Bal Panchayat’s account. During the Polio Vaccination Program, our Bal Panchayat was very active: We went from house to house and told the people about the polio eradication campaign and motivated them to take their children in to get the drops. We identified the children in our area who had dropped out of school and motivated them to rejoin the school. From time to time we carry out a clean-up campaign in our village during which we clean the village pathways and water sources. For the past two years, we have also been continuously planting trees and fodder on a 5-hectare plot of land. During village events such as weddings and poojas we provide help and support. Bal Panchayat Jagri has, through our creativity, organized many programs and campaigns in our villages. Our Bal Panchayat members, on a personal level, have a number of accomplishments. Our Bal Panchayat is always working towards development in our area in accordance with the aims and goals of the MCF. Our effort is to ensure that we always preserve these mountains and move forward in unity to create an identity at the global level for mountain children.

Oct. 2003: Members of the MCF chapters in the Saliyana clusters of villages held a cultural event with songs and plays about children rights and problems of the villages. They have also been holding meetings, raising money for their chapters and volunteering in efforts such as cleaning up their villages. The three chapters have accumulated savings totaling Rs. 2,800.

In the cluster Sarkote, MCF members have been having meetings and have held a cultural event where they talked about issues such as alcoholism, child marriage, damage to the environment and other societal problems. They have even made efforts to stop illegal encroachment of buildings and forest degradation.

In the cluster Panchali, MCF members had a meeting with school dropouts as well as children who are still attending school. They discussed their experiences and held cultural events. In this cluster, the young people have accumulated savings totaling RS 4,556.

In the Mehalchauri cluster, children who had attended a workshop in Anjanisain spoke about their experiences and spoke to the villagers about the MCF and why they feel the need for a chapter in their villages. They established some bal panchayats (MCF chapters) and have performed some voluntary work in the villages. They have a total of RS 2,000 in savings.

In Pajyana cluster, the young people have just started forming MCF chapters in the villages and schools and are participating in volunteer work for their villages. They have collected RS 250 between the three villages.

In Ghandiyal cluster, MCF members had a play about the problems of the village, they have been clearing the pathways and water sources of the village and have worked to help repair the walls of the reserve forest of the village.

May 2003: To mark the first anniversary of the MCF, the children of Gairsain held a meeting attended by about 100 children in which they discussed children's rights and how they would further the MCF. They then took out a rally, walking 4 km through the town to tell the townspeople about the MCF and talking to children in neighboring villages about setting up village chapters of the MCF. The children also established a kosh (savings account) for their chapter.

October 2002: Kunti from Sera Village, Gairsain-Chamoli, in her capacity as vice president of the Sera Bal Panchayat and Dhaniram as President of the Sera Bal Panchayat (one of our first village-based MCF secretariats) decided that they needed funds for their secretariat, so they staged a play: the Ramayan in Sera and Jagri villages in the district of Chamoli. They sold tickets to the performance and have earned RS 1,700 and Rs.1,400 each for the group. The play was the normal Ramlila but when Lord Ram was born, Kunti came onstage as a nurse and said, "at birth Lord Ram must have his first immunization shot!" And then during the play, the growth of Ram was linked to the immunization schedule. The play was much appreciated in the village.

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Chapter Information

Facilitator: Pratap Garhwali (SBMA/Plan)

The young members of the Chamoli chapter of the MCF have been among the most active in carrying the MCF from the town into the villages. They have also been foremost among the MCF groups in establishing savings accounts. (Because SBMA/Plan works in clusters of 5-6 villages per cluster, the MCF chapters that have grown out of these villages tend also to exist in the groups of 3-4 chapters per cluster.)

General Information and News

Chamoli is located deep in the heart of Uttarakhand, at the border between the Kumaon and Garhwal regions. It is relatively sparsely populated, with a density of 48 people per square km. The literacy rate is 76.2%. The district has 979 primary schools, 221 junior high schools, and 71 high schools and 53 intermediate schools. The major city in Chamoli is Gairsain.

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Mohan Panwar found a rare diamond in the form of a young woman named Hema who has become an inspiration for all of the MCF. Click here for more about her story.

Other MCF Chapters:
To visit the webpage of another chapter, please click on the links below:

Almora — Bageshwar — Chamoli — Champawat — Dehradun — Nainital
Pauri — Pithoragarh — Rudraprayag — Tehri — Uttarkashi

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