The Chapter to Give a Voice and Participate
"Come on, friends, let's fill this in with what we think are the root causes related to children's issues in our village," Amelia (14 years old) invited as she wrote down the aspirations of her friends. Amelia is a teenage girl who has been actively involved in the Village Children's Forum (FAD) since she was nine years old.
"I started joining FAD because Mr. Martono, who is a teacher and also an FAD facilitator, invited me. I really enjoy participating in these activities because I can meet friends and learn a lot of new skills. Every session in the FAD meeting is packaged with interactive games so it's not boring. Plus, at the end of the material presentation session, there are questions from the facilitator that compare the material to real events in my daily life, so it's very relevant," Amelia added.
In the villages in Sekadau Regency, the Children's Forum is a group initiated by WVI. The Village Children's Forum is formed so that children can know their rights, especially the rights to life, growth and development, participation, and child protection. In addition, through FAD, each child's potential can develop. FAD will hold regular meetings where facilitators will deliver various relevant educational materials for forum members.
The Village Children's Forum also makes children accustomed to aspiring and participating. For example, children are asked to lead research, known as Child-Led Research, coordinate team-building activities, and showcase their talents and expressions in various village activities.
With activities like this, children become accustomed to thinking critically and are able to examine child issues that occur around them. "After we mapped it out, my friends and I realized that in our village there are still problems, especially children who smoke and drop out of school. Actually, the number of dropouts is not large, but we think this finding in our village is important and should be known by the village government," said the ninth-grade student.
The discovery of children's issues in the village then continued to be a discussion full of knowledge transfer. Amelia became more aware of the issues of malnutrition and adolescent reproductive health. "For nutrition, I usually only know the old jargon “Empat Sehat Lima Sempurna”, but after following the session, I know that it has now been changed to Balanced Nutrition, and it is very important for my age. Before entering adulthood, it is important to stay healthy by paying attention to what you eat and the results affect the appropriate weight of adolescents," she added.
Amelia feels that the Village Children's Forum is an important part of her teenage years. She can learn many new insights and skills, even those she never realized she had before. "I hope that in the future, in FAD, more general materials can be added such as proposal writing and also nutritional materials that are still rare in the village. Proposal writing is a very interesting topic, because in the future everyone must know how to make a good and attractive proposal," concluded Amelia.
Author: Gloriana Seran (MCHN Specialist)
Editor: Mariana Kurniawati (Communication Executive)
