News from the MCF

A mid point checkin and debriefing on the year long RTI campaign was held on 22nd-23rd July 2009, at Dehradun, by the MCF with its 19 Partner Organisations. Read how the children and their supporting NGOs have overcome the problems faced by them in their quest to utilize the RTI at the rural level.

Empowered by the RTI the children are now becoming aware of how it can help them. Read more about how the Thati , Khal , Rani Lakshmi Bai and Horrawala Baal Panchayats have been successful in harnessing the power of the RTI for the good of their village.

RTI Village Level Workshops: Eighteen local non-governmental organizations are working with the MCF on an unprecendented effort to increase understanding of the Right to Information in rural mountain communities.

Through a series of village level RTI workshops, which commenced Jan 2009, children are learning how they can use the power of the RTI to empower their communities and improve local governance.

RTI Facilitators' workshop: In Nov. 2008, the MCF hosted a two-day facilitators workshop to teach our partner organizations about helping children learn about and use the RTI.

RTI Start Up Workshop: the Mountain Children's Foundation and Asha for Education, Silicon Valley (Asha SV) held a workshop on 12th-13th Oct 2008, with 72 children from 18 different partner organizations all over Uttarakhand (12 districts) to initiate them to the Right to Information.

Community Engagement Workshops (Jan2008 - Nov 2008): The purpose of the workshops is to help young people see themselves as agents for change in their villages, identify issues they want to address, and develop strategies for how their children's group can begin solving the problems. Lisle International awarded a grant through its Global Seed Fund program through the Education Resource Center (ERC) to the MCF in November 2007 for this purpose.

Commencing Jan 2008, a series of 10 workshops and 9 follow up visits have been conducted across the Himalayan State of Uttrakhand.

MCF Annual Workshop supported by SBMA/PLAN 20th -21st May 2008 focused on the Status Report by the State of Uttrakhand on the UNCRC and the survey conducted by the children on the status of the UNCRC. Sixty four children from 13 district (13 Partner Organizations) under the Umang programme (SBMA/PLAN)  participated in the work shop. Read one young person's perspective on what she saw and heard.

Building RTI awareness through children: The Silicon Valley chapter of Asha for Education has joined forces with the MCF to promote understanding and use of the Right to Information act in rural mountain communities. Read More...

RTI Facilitators' workshop: On 24th & 25th Nov. 2008, a two day facilitators’ workshop was hosted by the Mountain Children’s Foundation and supported by Asha for Education SV, at Dehradun. This was the second in a series of workshops on RTI.

RTI Start Up Workshop: the Mountain Children’s Foundation and Asha for Education, Silicon Valley (Asha SV) held a workshop on 12th-13th Oct 2008, with 72 children from 18 different partner organizations all over Uttarakhand (12 districts) to initiate them to the Right to Information.

Community Engagement Workshops (Jan2008 - Nov 2008): The purpose of the workshops is to help young people see themselves as agents for change in their villages, identify issues they want to address, and develop strategies for how their children’s group can begin solving the problems. Lisle International awarded a grant through its Global Seed Fund program through the Education Resource Center (ERC) to the MCF in November 2007 for this purpose.

Commencing Jan 2008, a series of 10 workshops and 9 follow up visits have been conducted across the Himalayan State of Uttrakhand.

MCF Annual Workshop supported by SBMA/PLAN 20th -21st May 2008 focused on the Status Report by the State of Uttrakhand on the UNCRC and the survey conducted by the children on the status of the UNCRC. Sixty four children from 13 district (13 Partner Organizations) under the Umang programme (SBMA/PLAN)  participated in the work shop.Feedback received from an observer of the workshop makes interesting reading….

Building RTI awareness through children: The Silicon Valley chapter of Asha for Education has joined forces with the MCF to promote understanding and use of the Right to Information act in rural mountain communities. Read More...

New Community Engagement workshops:
We've received another grant from Lisle Inc., and ERC to support eight localized workshops for young people to discuss and strategize ways they can change and improve conditions in their villages. Our January 2008 workshop taught kids how to use cartoons to communicate about important issues.

Helping teenage dropouts: The MCF has partnered with the Uttarakhand Government's Mahila Samakhya project to help girls who have dropped out of school acquire the skills they need to support themselves. The MCF has conducted two workshops for Mahila Samakhya to help build self-confidence and communication and leadership skills in these young women.

The MCF wrapped up a yearlong focus on advocacy and child policy with a 21st May 2007 workshop (PDF).

The focus of this campaign was to give children a voice in the state's work to create a child policy. To this end, the young people had been talking to other children, their communities and to local government officials about child rights and the need for a written child policy to guide the state, and they shared what they had done at this workshop.

This workshop follows a groundbreaking meeting in November 2006, hosted by the Uttarakhand government, where the children sat directly across the table from government officials and told them what they would like to see in the state's child policy.
Details and pictures.

We Have Moved!

The MCF's new office is located at:

63-A Vyom Prasth, G.M.S. Road, Dehradun, Uttarakhand 248001

Phone: 91-135-6532937

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