2006

Nov. 2006: Follow-up Child Policy workshop with Uttarkhand government
In an unprecedented consultation between the Uttarakhand state government and children, 89 young people from around the state met with government officials to discuss the formulation of a child policy for Uttarakhand. In this workshop, senior govenrment officials actually sat down with the children and listened to their concerns and recommendations for the child policy.

May 2006: Child Policy in Uttarakhand: A children's conference
Uttarakhand has no Child Policy for the state. So the children of the MCF have started the process by presenting Uttarakhand government officials with list of recommendations with which to formulate a policy. More than 135 children, and 20 organizations participated in this conference in Dehradun, which took place from May 18-21st.

2005

Nov. 2005 Follow-up disaster preparedness workshop in Horawalla
After reading about the disaster preparedness workshops in Pithoragarh and Nainital (see below), the young people of Horawalla wrote to the MCF asking for a workshop in their village. The MCF coordinated with the Dehradun government's disaster mitigation and management Cell (DMMC) to fund the workshop and bring in experts to speak to on the topic of disaster preparedness and prevention. But in a striking example of the principals of the MCF at work, the young people of Horawalla took the lead in organizing and running the workshop themselves!

July 2005 Follow-up disaster preparedness workshop in Nainital
Based on the success of the disaster preparedness workshop in Pithoragarh (below), the District Magistrate of Nainital authorized a district level workshop on the same topic. Sixty children participated in the 2-day workshop, which was organized by the Nainital Disaster Mitigation and Management Cell (DMMC) and MCF partner VIMARSH. Dr. R.K. Pande, head of the Uttarakhand DMMC inaugurated the event.

July 2005: Introductory MCF Workshop in Horawalla
The young people of Horawalla, Dehradun, had been writing to the MCF office asking for help in getting their chapter started. Since we have no partner organization in the village, MCF staff worked directly with the children to organize a 1-day workshop to help them establish an MCF group.

May 2005: Pithoragarh Disaster preparedness and management
Mountains are prone to a host of natural disasters ranging from earthquakes to landslides to forest fires. In 1991 a 6.8 earthquake in Uttarkashi killed nearly 800 people and injured thousands more. Each year lives are lost in landslides, flooding rivers, and other disasters. Yet, due to difficult terrain and scarce resources, there is little in the way of emergency services available in most remote mountain communities.

2004

June 1-7, 2004: MCF members came to Dehradun for a creative writing workshop sponsored by Plan International during which they wrote and edited a daily newspaper.

Also in June, 2004: MCF members went to the beautiful village of Raitthal in Uttarkashi for two week-long workshops in May-June. The workshops, sponsored by SBMA-Plan, each involved 90 children who stayed with families in the village, and focused on institution building, children's rights and responsibilities and what they wanted to do with their lives and careers. Similar workshops were held in Tehri and Chamoli districts where MCF members also participated.

February 4-7, 2004: In conjunction with Charities Aid Foundation, India, the MCF organized a 3-day leadership workshop that used theater and games to build self-confidence and leadership skills in MCF members. Though bad weather prevented many children from attending, 36 young people did make it to the meeting. Download report in PDF format.

January 5-7, 2004: Almora held a workshop on diversified agriculture with a focus on indigenous food crops. The workshop was sponsored by DASP,UA and SBMA-Plan and run by SUDHA.

2003

August 14, 2003: In celebration of the International year of Freshwater in the district of Almora, children from 40 schools were involved in various activities dealing with issues on the environment.

June 2003: Leadership development camps. These four camps involved a total of 400 children from Gairsain, Tehri, Uttarkashi, Nanital, Bageshwar and Rudraprayag in workshops where they learned leadership,child rights and responsibilities and communication skills. The children who attended these camps are now the driving force in many of the MCF chapters around Uttarakhand.

May 2003: Camps for school dropouts. Four week-long camps each brought a hundred children to Anjanisain, the Headquarters of SBMA and home to the Tehri secretariat. During the camps, the children were asked the reasons behind their dropping out of school and whether they would like to study again. The facilitators separated the terms literacy and education and explained how each one of us is educated through life itself. This differentiation helped boost the self confidence of many of the participants. They were also told of various ways they could continue their study program through taking exams privately to long distance courses.

May 21, 2003: MCF chapter-intiated workshops and camps. To celebrate the first anniversary of the MCF, chapters around Uttarakhand carried out activities of their own. For more information, please see our Chapters section.