Introduction
Thirty-children participated in a three-day cartoon workshop where they learned about illustration and storytelling as way to talk about issues with their community. The workshop, which took place in a small village called Ranichauri in Tehri District, was organized by the MCF Dehradun office and MCF partner Rural Area Development Society (RADS). It was funded by Lisle International and ERC.

This workshop is the first of nine localized community engagement workshops sponsored by Lisle and ERC. 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 those problems.

This workshop was special because a group of Lislers from the U.S. visited India and participated in the workshop. Knowing that someone cares about what they think and is supporting their accomplishments is one of the most powerful motivators for young people, and having people travel across the globe to meet them was a tremendous thrill for the children in the workshop. They quickly overcame their shyness and language barriers to tell the seven Lislers about the problems in their communities and the stories they were making.

January 2008 Cartoon Workshop Details:

The workshop started with the children introducing themselves. MCF’s chief program coordinator Sudhir Bhatt told the children the purpose of the workshop was to help them make a difference in their community through comics.

Sundar Mohan then gave basic knowledge of cartoon making to the children. To understand the drawing skills of the children and to loosen their hands and minds he told the children to draw any living thing within ten minutes. The children drew pictures of animals, including cows, cats, rats, birds, rabbits etc. Then Sundar Mohan taught the children how to draw human facial expression in cartoons.

In the next session the children worked to identify problems in their own lives and their villages. Each child came up with five problems, including: education, health, dowry system, electricity, water, school, unemployment, road accidents caused by intoxicated drivers, lack of playgrounds for the children and general lack of awareness. Then Sundar Mohan asked the children to select one of the issues and write a story about it. Sundar Mohan then taught the children how to divide the story into four parts: an introduction, the event, the climax, and the message and conclusion of the story.

Day 2
On the second day Sundar Mohan reviewed the children’s stories after they had divided them into four parts and began teaching them how to draw cartoons through line drawings and circles.

At 11 a.m. the Lisle group arrived. Mark and Nancy Kinney, Barbara Bratton, Suzanne Vogel, Lois and Dick Huddlestone, and Sharada Nayak arrived from Dehradun with MCF volunteers Aditi and Smita. The Lisle group looked at the drawings the children had displayed on the wall and sat down among the young people to ask them individually about the stories they were planning to draw.

Visiting Lisler. Barbara Bratton, center, won the children's hearts by joining them in drawing a cartoon.

Some of the Lislers also drew cartoons with them. The children asked them many questions about the U.S. and the education system there and the Lislers asked the children about their lives and aspirations through translation by the MCF team (Dwarika, Sudhir, Smita and Aditi).

Sushil Bahuguna, President of RADS, which was hosting the workshop, thanked the Lisle group for sponsoring the workshop and meeting with the children and said that their visit has encouraged the children and energize the young people.

The children practiced making cartoons and sketches and some rough pictures for comics. Mr. Sundar Mohan then taught the children how to make special effects through cartoons. In the last session of second day he told the children to select the title of their story.

It's mighty cold five thousand feet up in the Himalayas in January, so the children and the Lislers also found a few opportunities to bask in the winter sun as they talked about the children's lives and the very different world of the United States.

Day 3

The third day began with a recap of the previous day’s activities by Kalpana from Dharkote. Then the young people shared the titles of their cartoon stories with Sundar Mohan.

The Lisle group, who had spent the night in New Tehri, stopped in for one more visit with the children before they returned to Dehradun and the U.S. They sang a song and played a game with the children. When Sundar Mohan asked the children to draw frames for the four panels of their cartoons, the Lislers were an invaluable help, teaching the kids how to draw geometrically straight lines, and drew cartoons as well.

Lisler Suzanne Vogel looks at the drawings made during the workshop

Mark Kinney, the Executive Director of Lisle, asked the children for feedback on the workshop. Most of the children said that they enjoyed the workshop and had a great time meeting the Lisle team. One participant, Kalpana, said that she would have liked it better if the Lisle group had spent more time with them so that the children could learn from them. The Lislers also expressed their enthusiasm about the workshop and the experience of meeting the children and their hopes that the children would use what they had learned to create change in their communities. The young people promised that they would!

After the Lisle group departed to a warm farewell from kids, Sundar Mohan showed the children how to make the comics in four panels on two A-4 size papers and how to color them in with ink. The children spent the rest of the day completing their cartoons, which will be shared with all the members of the MCF through PABAM magazine.

- by Dwarika Prasad

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Lisle and ERC also supported disaster mitigation workshop for children in 2005.