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

Vision | Why Children | How We Work | Board of Directors | Advisory Council | Staff

Why Mountains, Why Children:

For too long mountains have existed merely on the periphery of people's minds: One in 12 people (some 700 million, 245 million of whom belong to rural areas in developing countries) live in the mountains (FAO, 2002). Yet mountain communities around the world—from the Andes to the Himalayas, the Appalachia to the highlands of Ethiopia—have long been marginalized, mired in poverty, and isolated from opportunities and choices, resources and services. In the host of problems that confront them in their daily existence, there runs a common thread that links all living in isolated mountain communities. These thus need to be addressed with mountain-specific strategies according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

Children, too often, are also marginalized and have little say in the policies and decisions that impact every aspect of their lives. Too often the adult world of policy and planning looks at them as mere users of scarce resources ignoring the fact that they are the ones who will grow up and comprise the community and its leaders. Yet as the MCF demonstrates every day, of all the segments of a community, it is the children who have the greatest energy and drive to change and improve their worlds. Adults themselves, as parents, show that they are

most receptive to new ideas and willing to try new things if they believe it will benefit the children.

The organizations behind the MCF have a long history of development work in mountain communities, and our experiences have only made us more certain that to bring about real and lasting change in these regions we must engage the energy and optimism of the children. The UN has declared that anyone under the age of 18 is a child (no matter how adult the burdens and responsibilities they bear) and it our conviction that we owe them the chance to speak out for themselves, their peers and their communities and to undertake what they feel they should do to make their lives and communities better.

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