CLAP 2007!

They do not heed to voices saying that they are too young,

They do not point their finger at somebody else,

They do not believe that they are incapable of making a difference,

On 27 October, we invite you to applaud twenty four special young boys and girls.

Date: 27 October
Time: 4:30 pm
Venue: Rang Manch, Bal Bhavan, ITO, Delhi

Meet the likes of Behro Lal Jangid, who assisted a girl escape child marriage in Rajasthan, Kalyani Pal, a St.Paul’s student and an environmental crusader who has influenced her school to conserve energy, Sudhamsu Krishnan who spread awareness about farmer suicides and Radha Sarkar who started an educational project in her school.

See their stories in vivid splashes of theatre, art and colour. Listen to their individual stories, triumphs and challenges. Sing along with Manchale – a group of children and volunteers from Kutumb Foundation.

We believe that together, the difference we make as active citizens is tremendous, and the time to get started is NOW!

RSVP
Neha Naqvi
neha.naqvi@pravah.org, 9810280699

CLAP is a collaboration between Pravah, Sanskriti School and the Ford Foundation. It recognizes young people between the ages of 13-17 who have independently led initiatives for a social cause or community benefit. The programme offers an intensive residential training workshop, a cash prize for collective use of Rs. 5,000 and recognition at a public event.

TYPF on UNICEF Website!

UNICEF India's Website recently covered a story on our project. Read about it on:

http://www.unicef.org/india

Think Back.

'Magic is first and foremost about wonder. Perhaps there is more to this world, than we can see.."

Today marks the day that the entire process is finally complete. The first part of it anyway... 8 months of struggling. Within those questioning, re framing, changing, re crafting. With fear, with hope, with many many quiet wishes and without question, with a lot of hard work. We called it the organizational visioning process. Something that could carry forth with the new - the old, something that could keep the essence of identity but push those edges of discovery.

Utopian wanderlust. I learned somewhere. of the infringements of your and my reality and the world that lies in between us. The unmistakable clarification that to a certain degree, the old cannot go with the new, that identity is merely something you get to keep with you for that one particular moment and that try as hard as I can, I cannot reconcile 5 years of being The Youth Parliament with this 1 new year, and this new direction, of being The YP Foundation.

We've gained. Yes, we have. Not an identity as much as a purpose. To struggle with the things that are worth struggling with. We've had more arguments about our perspectives and our issues this year rather than our budgets and our project time frames and that makes me, in the midst of my exacting demands, a little satisfied. We're pushed. Never have numbers played such large roles in our lives and my slightly jaundiced eye wanders to note that yes, it hasn't taken our roots away from us, swayed the ground beneath our feet or then shifted our perspectives. But it's made changes, like all things do..

By YP standards, the visioning process, was bold.

Every single step in itself. Every moment of choosing to selectively nurture the wings of certain fragments of potential, certain aspects. With those from across the years, from different times and spaces. Taking all the coordinators for a retreat this time, those 7 days of giving time to not just our work or ourselves, but giving time to the issues. To spend time thinking about the validity of the impact we create. Some days it's clearer, some days it's not. To rediscover the fire in you, to do this. To keep doing this, until you get that last moment of clarity. Of necessity. The joys of being an extremist and an idiot and a dreamer, all rolled into one :)

But I think we know now, why we do what we do.
And I think somewhere last year, it was perspective we were beginning to loose.
Because.

Numbers just overtook. in people. in projects. in expenses. in milestones.

Then came the action research plans. The chance to formulate. build stand stone from clay and cement it back to ashes again. We have such stark vulnerabilities sometimes, I wonder if we will be able to work around them well enough. On other days, I wonder if we should at all..

But the singular moment, that brought a closing. a fitting moment, that shared so much in it. The YP Birthday. Something we've all spoken and dreamt about for a year and a half before... what it would be like, the machinations of the mind traversed to a space where the accountant became weaver became speaker became poet became actor became a single note of song became a trapeze artist and eventually, came back to being me again.

I clearly remember walking somewhere, outside that hall. Just looking at the sheer energy and the expanse of the room infront me and the people within it, wondering whether I would ever find enough loopholes to satisfy myself and when I would cross that single moment of self artifice and break the mould.

The visioning process. Yeah.
It helped me. Speak out loud what I've always known.
I've never cared about how it was meant to be done.

Then the strangest of all, the loneliness, the intense drive, the questions, the pushing, the stress.
Like I've suddenly travelled back 5 years in time to start something all over again.
In moments of music, when I can breathe deeply and remember what it feels like.

The music, your freedom, my inner self consicous child, our instinct and sleep.
I think we'll be more than okay.

RTI and Blending Spectrum - Workshop at The Shri Ram School

Photocredits: Tanushree Ghosh, The YP Foundation, 10th October 2007

Project 20: Child Rights, Child Labour and Child Domestic Labour

प्रोजेक्ट २० अपडेट: चाइल्ड रिघ्ट्स, चाइल्ड लेबर ऎंड चाइल्ड डोमेस्टिक लेबर

“Save their rights & do it right yourself.”

“We want our rights as we DESERVE our CHANCE.”

“Let kids breathe freely as they won’t get their childhood back.”

“Stop Child Labour, it is one of the worst things you could to a child.”

“You send your children to school – don’t you want others to go to school?”

“If there is someone who can help its US.”

Did we ever think that children themselves are perhaps the most powerful catalysts for change within their own age group? That young people are critical in motivating their peers to realize what Child Rights mean, to become pro-active citizens and help young people believe that they have immense strength, to be able to create a difference in their own communities?

Young people living in New Delhi, India believe so. “This project has made me think beyond my own world, it’s made me remember that I am responsible and that I can’t pass that responsibility on to anyone else anymore.” - Saudamini, a 19 year old Peer Facilitator.

The voices of 200 ten and eleven year old students at The Shri Ram School, Vasant Vihar in New Delhi, India resounded in October 10, 2007. In a project conducted by UNICEF and The YP Foundation, a youth organization promoting young people’s voices by supporting projects currently on Child Rights, Child Labour and Child Domestic Labour; students and staff from The Shri Ram School came together to share young people’s experiences and thoughts on what young people think, and what they can do, to create effective change with the issue of Child Labour.

Involving twenty young Peer Educators from The YP Foundation and UNICEF; over one thousand young people from ten schools across Delhi are participating in a two part workshop series that sensitizes young people between the ages of ten and sixteen to increase their knowledge of Child Rights, Child Labour and Child Domestic Labour. The project aims at highlighting the various stakeholders who play key roles in being able to bring about a change and influencing children’s behavior towards their becoming agents for change in their households and in their communities.

October 10, 2007 was a special day for the young people working in this project. It marks the 1^st Anniversary of the Amendments of the Child Rights Act in India and gave children a chance to connect using theatre, music and art to understand how the Rights of the Child apply to their lives. Using the UNICEF cartoon Meena and the medium of open forum theatre; the theatre group Manzil enacted a play that described some of the realities children in Domestic Labour experience. At the height of the tension in the play, they invited students from the school to substitute the actors and in the role play, students explored the different ways in which they could make a positive impact and increase communication.

In an act of solidarity, students came together to create an art wall, a series of posters that expressed their beliefs. Using waste material innovatively, the students used words like ‘love’, ‘respect’, ‘play’, ‘food’ and ‘rights’ to advocate what young people can do. This exhibition will be shared throughout October and November with young people across New Delhi.

“This Diwali, I want to help 4 children in Child Labour instead of burning crackers।” – Nirdhi. Says Ishita, a 22 year old Project Coordinator from The YP: “It’s small realizations like that, that are really encouraging. They also remind you that to enable the rights of all children, the most effective change starts with me.”

A letter from The American Embassy.

A note from one of our partners!

Projects in 2007!

The Right to Information Programme

Project 20: Child Rights, Child Labour and Child Domestic Labour:

In collaboration with UNICEF, The YP Foundation is training a group of 12 Peer Facilitators to develop and conduct a series of awareness workshops aimed at 10-14 and 15-16 year olds in Schools in New Delhi. These workshops are going to be conducted in two sets per school over the months of September, October and November, culminating in a larger common event for all the students on the 14th of November. There will also be a smaller event on the 10th of October, to bring together realizations and outcomes of the first set of workshops. The project aims at establishing a connect with urban children to develop a sense of belongingness to the community and take responsibility and be active stakeholders thereby being active agents of social change. Exposing young people to different realities, helping them negotiate and engage in a healthy manner with the issue can catalyze this process.

The Facilitative Branch

Project 19: Understanding HIV/AIDS:

Project 19 focuses on a Peer Awareness Model where young people train over a period of 4-6 months to become Peer Facilitators on the issue of HIV/AIDS, focusing on awareness, information, treatment and care as primary areas of concern. The project also includes the development of 12 research case study projects by 12 young people currently in training who are presenting case study projects on the various aspects of Understanding HIV/AIDS and its impact beyond the rhetoric, on people’s lives. Two budding young filmmakers who have produced a 15 minute short film on ‘Sharing the Virus’, enacted, directed, produced and edited by 15 young people. The film touches upon the issues of contraction of HIV, ignorance of the urban educated, rejection faced by some HIV positive persons, their ways of “dealing with it” and the continued spread if HIV.

The Access Programme

VOICES – The School Project – Substance Abuse and Young People:

VOICES focuses on taking issues of urban importance to students, to provide them a comfortable space within which to provide enabling information, for children to make key decisions and strengthen their life skills. VOICES works with a tram of 22 young people, who train as Peer Facilitators to conduct awareness workshops in schools.

VOICES – The Intervention Programme – Peer Pressure Intervention:

The intervention section of VOICES, The Intervention Programme works over a period of time with the faculty and students of a school on issues relating to peer pressure, bullying, interpreting popular media and self esteem. The project is run by a team of 6 Peer Trainers with extensive training on the issue.

Blending Spectrum

Possibilities that empower street children: Blending Spectrum works with three flexible and sustainable models (at the New Delhi Railway Station, Nizamuddin Basti and Sarai Hostel) in collaboration with the NGO Aman Biradiri to facilitate the growth of a child with limited access to opportunities. Working through the mediums of training, field interventions and research, the needs of a community are identified and the corresponding resource providers are located and engaged through an interactive process. The project works through urban young people involved in a peer-to-peer facilitation process with street children with the following aims:

· To bridge the existing gap between the interventions made by communities and the lack of resources/skills that impact their effectiveness.

· Identify potential in children and connect them to schools, learning spaces and opportunities to develop life skills.

· Increase sensitivity and promote a better connect and understanding between the homeless and the urban youth.

Kaivalya – Understanding Transgender and Sexuality

The project works through engaging young people in research projects, community interaction and participating in sensitization based programmes to understand Gender and Sexuality, with the specific aim of providing an interactive platform to increase awareness on transgender issues.

· The Research Branch

· Substance Abuse and Young People – Training Methodologies

· Child Rights, Child Labour and Child Domestic Labour – Training of Trainers Manual

· Understanding HIV/AIDS: Awareness, Care and Treatment – Research Manual

· Kaivalya – Respecting Identity – Research Manual on Transgender

Silhouette

Arts & Music Education and Awareness

Silhouette launches a year long project to create stronger respect for the Arts in Delhi and a better understanding of Music Education. The project includes a workshop series on music, a concert series that promote upcoming genres of music, an Arts Campaign, a Theatre Production and curating The 15 Minute Fringe Festival, a two day festival that celebrates amateur and professional artists from across the city.

TYPF's Stratefic Plan for 2007 - 2009.

An intensive focus in the first half of this year has been an assessment of our due diligence process, our stakeholder analysis and an in depth action research process for all our staff and volunteers, to better understand the issues we are working with. We have focused on:

1. Organizational Visioning: Mission, Vision, Goals (Articulation and Strategies)

2. The YP’s Vision for Working with Young People.

3. Exploring Fundraising Strategies and Project Management Skills.

4. Visioning and Development: Social Outreach/ Impact Analysis.

5. Developing Team Building and Inter Personal Working Ethics.

The organization’s exclusive focus over the next 2 years is committed to building and engaging with the following issues to create stronger, constructive and practical impact.

· The Performing and Visual Arts: Creating stronger platforms to showcase young artistes and developing resources to exchange information and raise awareness on music education and the arts.

· The Law: Stronger engagement with legislative research, increased awareness on laws in India and their application to our daily lives and engaging with the government to create a more public dialogue for young people.

· Substance Abuse and HIV/AIDS: Provide easier access to and a stronger understanding of counseling, addiction and intervention for children with regards to Substance Abuse. Increase young people’s access to information on HIV/AIDS and examining care and treatment facilities and policies in India.

· Education and Health Services for Street Children: To bridge the existing gap between the interventions made by communities and the lack of resources/skills that impact their effectiveness. Identify potential in children and connect them to schools, learning spaces and opportunities to develop life skills.

· Life Skills Development & Curriculum: We are working on an alternative curriculum process within the schooling system, to encourage stronger communication between parents, teachers and students. Additionally, we are launching The Workshop Series - A programme series dedicated to working and developing life skills within young people. The series literally gives people a workshop environment where they re-create and analyze issues of pressure, depression, body images and the media, eating disorders and a how to help your friend series.

· Open Forums and Pilot Projects: We will continue to support short term intervention and awareness projects on issues that are pertinent to young people, designed and executed by them.

· Gender and Sexuality: Engaging young people in research projects, community interaction and participating in intervention based programmes to create a stronger understanding Gender and Sexuality, with the specific aim of providing an interactive platform for young people with their families.