Child Workers in Nepal Concerned Center

CIRCLE partner Child Workers in Nepal Concerned Center (CWIN) is successfully raising awareness about the dangers of child labor and the importance of education in one of the world's least developed countries. Out of Nepal's 23 million people, one-third live below the extreme poverty line (US $1/day). Children under the age of 18 make up about half of the total population: meanwhile, barely 80% of children enroll in primary school at all, and only 51% complete the primary level. The ILO-IPEC estimates that 2.6 million Nepalese children are working, in nearly every sector of the economy: these include agriculture and stone quarries, domestic service and hotels, as well as many others.

The experience of CWIN and of Winrock has shown that children who are not in school are most vulnerable to child labor. CWIN, a pioneering social organization, is conducting a CIRCLE-funded project to raise awareness about this, and about the exploitation of child labor. In this project, they are working with communities and children in ten districts of Nepal, in the Kathmandu valley and both the eastern and the western development regions. The project's activities include strengthening child rights forums, initiating child-to-child advocacy, training and sensitizing teachers, conducting street dramas, advocating with national institutions, and disseminating Information, Education and Communication (IEC) materials. Thus CWIN is aggressively raising the issue from all sides simultaneously, reaching a wide range of people.

Raising children's awareness: Acknowledging the potential of children to be supporters and advocates of their own education, CWIN has mobilized "child rights forums" and other children's clubs. One innovative and successful activity has been child-to-child advocacy, where boys and girls are taught about child rights and child labor exploitation, then move on to raise their own voices and tell other children. Children are learning that they are not second-class citizens, but integral parts of society. Already nearly 600 children have participated.
Raising teachers' awareness: CWIN is also training teachers about their role in reducing child labor and promoting child rights. Teachers here are well-placed to influence both children and community members, since they are normally quite trusted individuals. So far, CWIN-CIRCLE has trained 305 teachers.
Raising community awareness: CWIN's IEC campaigns for CIRLCE have reached over 5,000 people. They include posters, pamphlets, stickers, postcards, and booklets. These have been effective tools in raising awareness in those areas where mobility is high: while they may not stay in a community long enough to fully participate in CWIN's CIRCLE project, they take the message with them.
Raising awareness broadly: Street Dramas

SOME OF THE STICKERS
Education is a Right, Not a Privilege.	From Exploitation to Education
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An innovative feature of CWIN's CIRCLE project has been its use of street drama to convey key themes in an interesting way. All of the members of the street drama performance team are former street children whose lives have been transformed by the interventions of CWIN and the support of the community. Allowing street children to share their difficult childhood experiences in this way is useful for them and also makes the message far more real to the audience. They certainly know the feelings of exploited children more than other people who have not been child laborers!

These street dramas have already reached at least 10,000 people. Feedback from audiences has convinced CWIN's CIRCLE staff of the effectiveness of their issues-based performances. "Wherever we perform the drama, we receive overwhelming response from the spectators," they say. "During the street drama show in Dhading, our street theatre team left a significant image across many communities. The spectators told us that the talented team was effective in portrayal of the consequences of hazardous child labor and education as a tool to reduce it. Many spectators spoke out on the necessity to take such inspirational performances to every nook and corner of the country in order to reduce exploitative child labor practices."

Street drama in Dhadingbesi, Dhading

The popularity of the street drama team is reflected in the fact that they are cheered and encouraged by people wherever they go. After a show at Dhadingbesi – around 80 KM northwest of Kathmandu –people requested the team to return to help them tackle other socially-relevant issues. They assured the CWIN CIRCLE staff that the child performers had taught them an important lesson: not to indulge in exploitative child labor practices and to act against them. Many villagers are now convinced that they must send their children to school to ensure their bright future.

Importantly, the street dramas make people aware that it is up to each one of us to do our part to stop child labor. One of the Dhadingbesi villagers even invited the team to stay in his house. He said,
"I am a poor man and cannot provide you good food to eat. But I can offer you a place to live as long as the team is at Dhading. This would give me the feeling that I had contributed in some way, however small, to addressing a big problem."