Doing their own advocacy helps children develop the skills and confidence to talk about their situation. Policy-makers are more likely to listen to them, and the proposed solutions are more likely to reflect children’s realities.

In the advocacy group in Kathmandu, around fifteen children meet every few weeks. Some of the children work as domestic labourers, others in the adult entertainment industry. They share their own stories with each other, generating evidence for action from their lived experiences.

As an advocacy-focused group, they engage with the advocacy plans from the other children’s groups, planning and implementing various advocacy actions.

These advocacy actions have ranged from campaigning through their own art, to meeting parent and teacher stakeholder groups. The children have met with local government officials to demand action on child labour, and have spoken at events like National Children’s Day to share their experiences.

FURTHER EXAMPLES:

What is the action? - CLARISSA

This group of children working in Bangladesh’s leather industry used the evidence from a needs-based assessment to decide the focus of their activities. Saying they felt ashamed about the cleanliness of their community spaces when outsiders visited, they decided to work on a clean community environment.

Meeting several times a month, the group of fourteen teenage boys and girls have run an action community cleaning campaign, distributing handmade posters and dustbins, organising a community cleaning initiative of 200 houses, as well as cleaning homes, schools, and house rooftops. Along the way, and with the help of life skills sessions run by community mobilisers, they have picked up leadership and organisational skills, enhancing their sense of agency.

The children also used their creativity to perform a “Theatre for Development” show in front of 200 community members to raise awareness about a clean environment, and painted bright slogans on some of the walls. This child-run group has succeeded in integrating a significant number of adult stakeholders into their activities, laying the groundwork for future actions.

FURTHER EXAMPLES:

What is the action? - CLARISSA

Many children work in unregulated and informal ‘cabin restaurants’ (with small private rooms), massage parlours and dance bars on the outskirts of Nepal’s capital city, Kathmandu. Rather than stigmatising the venue owners, CLARISSA works directly with them through groups like this one.

This group of eight restaurant and dance bar owners chose to work on improving their documentation of the young workers they employ. They began by collecting evidence in their neighbourhoods on the practices used by other business owners to verify the age of their employees.

Reaching out to other stakeholders, including the local Night Entertainment Business Association, they worked to monitor what documentation other business owners collect to verify the age of their employees and avoid employing minors.

Other actions included helping new businesses to register with the local authorities and developing codes of conduct.

FURTHER EXAMPLES:

What is the action? - CLARISSA

Children working in the leather industry in Dhaka decided to focus on the issue of financial management within families because of the high levels of indebtedness that sometimes forces children into labour.

The children collected evidence in the community on job loss, dowry debts, inability to work due to illness, and a lack of financial support from fathers. They saw these issues as key factors in having to leave their school and contribute to their family’s income.

Meeting twice a month, the group of nine children developed an action plan to support community member stakeholders to generate alternative income, reduce their spending and adopt a savings mindset. The project then supported trainings in financial management for the community stakeholders identified by the children.

Changes were also felt by the children themselves, as two managed to persuade their parents to continue paying for their schooling, while another started his own newspaper distribution business.

FURTHER EXAMPLES:

What is the action? - CLARISSA