Building safer environments for children through peer education
Grant information
Grant Project Name: Child Protection System Building (CPSB) in Sunsari and Udayapur District
Funded by: Department for International Development (DFID)
Time frame: April 2012 – March 2016
Purpose and Objective: The CPSB project has two outcomes focused on:
- Strengthening Child Protection systems from local to national level
- Strengthening the resiliency of the most vulnerable children and communities
Under these major objectives, the project focuses on the capacity building of formal structures like Village Child Protection and Promotion sub Committees (VCPPC), District Child Welfare Board and Central Child Welfare Board, and the police whereas it also works with different informal structures like child clubs, mother’s groups, help line, NGOs, CBOs, teachers, and health workers through child protection and life skills training.
“We all understand that we should not marry early and we have the right to say “no” to such marriages,” says Hem Kumari, 16, a schoolgirl wearing her neat uniform from Udayapur. She exudes confidence in her manner of speaking.
Hem recalls that she was not like this before, but after taking part in the community child club she has changed a lot. Currently, she leads the village level child club network and is the president of her community club called Sagarmatha child club.
World Vision provides training about life skills, child rights, and child marriage to Hem and the other club members.
She gives credit to the club and the opportunities that World Vision has provided as she has been able to expand her knowledge and contacts.
Hem said, “People in my village know me very well now. When I return from any training or programme they ask me about it and I tell them things that I know. People hardly knew me before but now they even come to meet me to ask things.
"In our village we used to have around 10-15 child marriages every year but now we barely hear of any."
Hem recalls an incident of a year back when she and her club members and Village Child Protection and Promotion sub Committees (VCPPC) helped stop a child marriage in a nearby village. In the beginning they were threatened by the family members for interfering in their decision, but finally with the help of police the marriage was stopped.
“In our village we used to have around 10-15 child marriages every year but now we barely hear of any. People have become aware and now they know that it is not right. Not just parents but even boys and girls of our age know that they can have a boyfriend or girlfriend but not marry at an early age,” she says.
World Vision through its life skills training prepares children like Hem to be knowledgeable about child protection as they learn about harmful practices like child marriage, violence, abuse neglect, and exploitation.
As of now World Vision has trained 65 girls and boys in Sunsari and Udayapur districts who work as change agents in the community to bring aware the other members of the village on these issues and that they will be able to protect themselves.
Hem shares that youth are now much more aware about child marriage, its effect especially on girls health, education, and girls undergoing different kinds of violence, so they clearly know that child marriage has many adverse effects. She shares her knowledge with her friends, club members and also the other members of her community whenever she gets chance.
Hem gives credit to World Vision for all the changes in her life and the VCPPC coordinator of her village Dohini Kumar Guragain for all his guidance and motivation to be a part of this change in her community. Hem is very studious and is the best student of her class. In the future Hem wants to become a nurse and reach out to her community people with better health facilities.
Dohini who has been supporting and mentoring Hem was selected as the VCPPC member with the consultation of the Village Development Committee (VDC). He is involved in many social works. Together with World Vision, VCPPC members, and other stakeholders working for child protection, all came to a conclusion that to prepare children to learn about child protection issues was to reach them through child clubs. These child club members would then be instrumental in spreading the message to their peers.
“To eliminate bad practices in the village we needed to go to the root cause. Today I can guarantee that every member in our village is aware of what child marriage is and how damaging it can be, that is why child marriage has significantly decreased here,” he asserts.
With the implementation of the Child Protection project in rural areas of Udayapur and Sunsari district, there has been a significant decrease in child marriage cases. More importantly the community is aware of the negative impact and are ready to voice against it.
Hem is one example but there are many like her who are working to spread the message of child rights and child marriage so that youth, children, and parents are alert and mindful and move away from the existing harmful practices in the community.