It Starts from the Child's Forum

Dito, (13), became a member of the village child's forum (FAD) because his friends were curious about the activities of the children's forum. Being active in children's forums has turned a shy Dito into a confident child who likes to socialize.

Like teenagers in general, Dito is a boy who doesn't really like socializing with friends around his neighborhood. His activities after school are usually playing with friends and doing schoolwork.

His aunt was the first to introduce Dito to the children's forum group. Her aunt is an activist for the Community-Based Child Protection System (PATBM). At that time in 2019, Wahana Visi Indonesia (WVI) facilitated the formation of the FAD which was initiated by PATBM activists. Dito was interested in participating in the children's forum because he was curious about his activities that had never existed in his village.

Before joining FAD, Dito was a shy boy and couldn't express his opinion. He also never knew about child rights and child protection. According to Dito, what he likes about FAD is that he can meet friends, tell stories and share opinions. Dito's favorite activities from the Children's Forum are knowledge sharing and group games.

“In the past, I used to joke too much to the point of hurting my friends. However, after attending training on children's rights, I began to understand that everyone should be respected and should not be stigmatized,” said Dito.

Now, since being active in FAD and receiving a lot of capacity building and participating in various activities to improve youth skills, Dito has changed into being confident and able to express opinions in meetings. Dito also started to participate in promoting children's rights, especially child protection by making poster educational materials with the theme Stop Violence Against Children.

Dito hopes that the FAD can create more variety of activities and together they can socialize the Campaign for the Elimination of Violence Against Children (PKTA).

Written by: Rista Matondang, CESP Coordinator Area Program Landak Wahana Visi Indonesia