Child Clubs Help Form New Leaders
Since 2003 Educate the Children has helped organize Child Clubs in many of the schools where we work. Currently, there are twelve Clubs operating in our Godavari and Ichangu Narayan project areas with almost 1600 members, many of whom are children of women participating in our Women's Empowerment Program.
Modeled on a similar program developed by Save the Children, Child Clubs are a powerful tool in our efforts to work with communities to build a better future. In the past two years, thanks to the support of the Jack Deloss Taylor Charitable Trust, this activity has emerged as a key component of our Integrated Community Development model.
Child Clubs work to address issues like social awareness, health/sanitation, extra curricular activities, school news, etc. Each club member contributes two rupees per month to a fund which is used for events, to help provide needy children (club members and non-club members alike) with school supplies and, in some cases, even buy supplies for the schools.
This year, ETC has provided orientation training for 62 members, representing the 12 clubs. Each participant was introduced to a range of activities and guided in developing year long action plans for their clubs. These two day sessions also gave youngsters opportunities to become acquainted with members of other clubs with whom they can share ideas and establish new friendships. Some of the key achievements of the clubs have included the:
Establishing rules and regulations
Each club has established its rules and regulations. These rules apply to the actions of club members but also address the leadership role of the club within the school. Some of the requirements that club members have imposed on themselves are organizing monthly meetings, participating in school activities, and encouraging other students to be prompt in arriving at school. Club members also strive to serve as role models for other students by, for example, demonstrating respect to elders and other students, keeping classrooms clean, helping keep noise down in the classroom, etc.
Extra curricular activities
Every child club has a subcommittee that works with teachers to organize extra curricular activities. Competitions have been a favorite activity. Recent competitions have included general knowledge quizzes in which students answered questions on topics including math, language and history, but also sports and games as well as oratory and essay writing. Winners received small prizes such as pencils or notebooks that the club purchased.
Participation in Community Activities
Members of several clubs have participated in Educate the Children sponsored health campaigns including one for polio vaccinations. Clubs also helped organize events for International Children's Day and Earth Day. Club members have also been helping schools this spring to ensure that school age children enroll for the new academic that starts in April.
School Broadsheets
In lieu of a school newspaper for which there are no resources, Nepali students prepare broadsheets that are posted in a central hallway of their school. Child Clubs have taken a leadership role in producing such broadsheets which have included stories that relate recent events in the school or village, as well as cartoons, jokes, poems about children's rights, interviews with teachers and other information.
Agriculture in the Schools
Child Clubs have also been leaders in working on Educate the Children's "Agriculture in the Schools" program through which kitchen gardens have been established in several schools. Club members have taken on the responsibility of ensuring that the necessary work is being done to care for the gardens so that all students can benefit from them as a tool for science education and practical learning.
What Child Clubs represent is the emergence of student leaders who may become the community leaders of tomorrow. But, while Educate the Children helps the Clubs organize, even more important is the example set by the women who take advantage of the programs we offer to build a better life for themselves and their families. These leaders of tomorrow who participate in Child Clubs have the good fortune to be able to apprentice with the emerging leaders of today: their mothers.
Thanks to Paul Tatar for helping put this story together.