Introduction - The MCF Forum

The children of the mountains have much to say. But too often the world is not listening, or can't hear their voices. Our vision is to change this by helping the young people of the mountains build a forum in which they can speak and by helping them join together in the hope that many voices uplifted will carry further than a single one.

In this section you can hear some of the things the children have to say:

Letters from MCF members
We receive a great many letters from our members (borne out by the Rs. 500 or so we spend each month to accept "bearing" letters, those sent without postage). We haven't manage to keep up with getting them all translated and on our site, but we've made a start and hope to have many more soon:

• Shakshi Arya, 9, sent us a poem about her sorrow that girls are less valued in her society than boys are.
• Letters from Pithoragarh
• A letter from Tehri

PABAM Magazine
Our monthly Hindi-language magazine helps the children of the MCF stay connected with one another and with us.

Declarations by the children of the MCF
During the International Conference of Mountain Children (ICMC), which launched the MCF, the 100 young people who had come from around India and Nepal talked about the things that were important to them. After four days of discussion, they came up with a declaration of the issues they wanted to address. These included fighting child exploitation and abuse, fighting drug abuse and alcoholism and raising AIDS awareness, improving the quality of government schools, conservation of the environment, etc. Read the full declaration.

Just prior to the beginning of the ICMC, delegates from the 13 districts of Uttarakhand met in Dehradun to discuss the issues they felt were most important for this state. Their declaration highlighted such problems as poorly equipped schools, absent teachers, child labour and the need to protect the environment and water resources. Read their declaration here.