Scholarship for federation members

Arogya Agam is supporting six (four are seen in the photo) young people from the children federation in pursuing higher education by granting them a scholarship for a technical diploma. They will for example be studying to become a nurse and lab technician. The course takes one year to complete. These young people will be the first graduates in their family and without this support they would not have been able to pursue higher education.

Family support programme

Arogya Agam runs a family support programme for HIV+ children. Many of these children are also part of Thanambikkai Children Federation. This includes providing a monthly grant to the child’s family of Rs. 600, which is the equivalent of £6. The grant is to help the family afford HIV treatment for the child. Even though the treatment itself is free, the hidden costs such as travel, food, taking leave from work (many of the parents rely on daily wages) can mean parents/guardians cannot afford to go for check ups and treatment. 182 children benefit from this programme, which take place in three different locations to accommodate beneficiaries living in different parts of the district. This monthly interaction with the children also give Arogya Agam's staff a chance to guide and help with any health issues or discrimination, which they may be dealing with. This month and the next three months the families are also provided with pulses, such as chickpeas and lentils, as an extra helping hand.

Drawings related to child abuse and violence

Last year Arogya Agam organised a Children's Happiness Day. During this day the children were invited to draw abuse and violence from their own lives or community. This was used as an ice breaker to discuss how we can best support them through their difficulties. Below are some of the drawings from that day which include examples of domestic and physical violence, child labour, early marriage, caste and HIV+ discrimination and not being given access to education.

Climate change awareness meeting

64 children braved the heavy morning rain and attended this meeting on climate change. At the meeting we discussed climate change and the effect on our own lives and what we can do. In one village there is a tree plantation where trees are grown and preserved. In other villages they try to keep the streets free of waste and practise proper waste disposal.

It was decided that the children would choose 15 villages as models for other villages. In these villages the children groups will collect rainwater, promote kitchen gardens and planting of medical plants, reduce littering and encourage recycling.
The meeting ended with a dance prepared and performed by some of the younger children which was a great way to finish off the day.

Federation flag

Sathiyavani, on the left, has designed Thanambikkai Children Federation flag. She presented the flag on Children's Rights day where she also explained the meaning and symbolism of the colours and the design. The blue colour symbolises self-confidence, which is also part of the federation's name. Thanambikkai means self-confidence in Tamil. This is an important part of the federation's work, when a society treats you as a second class citizen, discriminates and marginalises you because of your caste, self-confidence is an important asset! The white colour symbolises purity of their hearts because they want to work for all children's rights and fight any injustice they meet. The green colour stands for growth of the federation and the children. They want to blossom and grow like nature. Lastly, in the middle of the flag you see two joined hands and that is because they want to unite and stand up for children's rights together.

Convention of Early Marriage and Children's Rights Day 2014

The convention on early marriage prevention and children’s rights day took place last week and was a great success. It was a day filled with debate, dance, skits, drama, speeches and fun. The children who had prepared the cultural programme really managed to discuss the quite serious issue of early marriage while still producing enjoyable performances. One boy made short speeches against early marriage by mimicking famous actors. Another group performed a drama with this theme, yet another sang songs about child rights. Here are some pictures from the day:

Invitation and programme for Children's Rights Day

These are the invitations and programmes for our Convention on Child Marriage Prevention and Children's Rights Day 16.11.2014 in Tamil and English.

Preparations for Universal Children's Day

20 November is Universal Children’s Day, which marks the day of the United Nations’ declarations and conventions securing the rights of children. Here at Arogya Agam that means we will celebrate the rights of children but more crucially we will bring into focus where these rights are not secured. Last year we concentrated on sexual violence against children and this year we will bring attention to under-age marriages.

On Sunday 16 November we will hold our campaign and when I say our and we, I really mean the children who are at the forefront of preparing and conducting the campaign.

Saturday 1 November the leaders of the children groups met at Arogya Agam to discuss how to prepare for the day. 25 young people joined and were eager to share their thoughts and ideas.

To start the day off some of the young people had prepared presentations on the children programme’s work more generally. This included HIV related projects, work with tribal children such as securing them education and the prevention of under-age marriages. This was partly to create social awareness about issues, which might not affect the children themselves, but also to establish a foundation for generating suitable campaigns and rights-based advocacy.

The debate on under-age marriage continued as it was decided that this issue would be the focus of this year’s Universal Children’s Day. The young people shared some very important ideas and difficulties related to the prevention of under-age marriage. One point that came out of the discussion was that because of the societal pressure for having a honorable daughter under-age marriages are arranged. The honour of the family lies heavily on the shoulders of the daughter. When parents fear that their daughter might be having a love affair or is too interested in boys, parents feel a pressure to ‘fix’ this without dishonouring the family name. This can be ‘fixed’ by arranging the daughter’s marriage even if this is only 14 years old. This will also mean that the girl drops out of school and most probably, she will marry a man aged at least 18. The fear of love affairs is certainly one of the reasons that under-age marriages are arranged. Another point that was brought up was the importance of training and bringing awareness of these issues to marriage hall owners and the people creating the wedding invitations. In case we are not aware of an under-age marriage being arranged they certainly will be and they can then take contact to Arogya Agam. This, however, is not always possible because the family might hold the ceremony in private, claiming they are together for another purpose. Moreover, many marriages are not registered which makes it very difficult to monitor and prevent. At present a lot of awareness has been spread but under-age marriages are still occurring. A change in attitude takes a long time, often decades, and even though we see improvement this work is still very important.

On 16 November we will be holding a meeting for the public. The children will present the issues and facilitate the debate. During the intervals the children have also prepared a culture programme, including dances and dramas. Thanambikkai (meaning self-confidence) Children Federation will be launched, presenting the policies and bye-laws created by the children and asking for the support of the community in securing the rights of children.

We are looking forward to this day of debate and hopeful that it will foster a change in the mentality and generate action in the prevention of under-age marriages.