Caring for others:The Children’s Club helping children to come up in their studies

This is a story of village Majlishbag, which is once known as a illiterate village. But now the young youths of the village has taken a pledge to see that all the children of their village are in school, and not only that but are doing good in the school.

The first generation educated youths of the village has started coaching their younger ones of the village in the morning and evening at the village community hall (Constructed by World Vision).

Instead of enjoying themselves, playing or wasting their time, the youths who are the members of the Majlishbag Mukti Children Club (Mukti means freedom) are helping their kith and kin of their village to study well.
Through this coaching class about 50 children from primary till high school level are getting help from their elder brothers who are also studying in the higher classes. The Majlishbag Mukti Children Club has taken this initiative as a movement where all the 81 children of the village are members. Kanak Murmu, President of the children club says, “We don’t want our children to be struggling in their studies due to poor quality of studies in the school. Our motto is to help them who are poor in studies.

Now due to this initiative, all the children of the village are going to school, studying daily and there are not a single drop out in the village.

Now they have the smile, which is possible due to the frequent support of World Vision, which has enabled them and their families through Income Generation Activities, and timely support.

CBPM

What is Community Based Performance Monitoring (CBPM)?

CBPM was designed to be a tool to monitor concrete local services provided to the community by the public authorities (for example, community evaluation of a local Health Clinic, Municipal School, etc.). However, because of its capacity for adaptation, it can be used to monitor a program of service provided by another institution working locally. It has the main objective of amplifying the voice of the community, of those that use a public service, or are the beneficiaries of a project. It is simple to execute and understand. The ideal context is that it should be incorporated in a broader, ongoing empowerment process. It is also a way of drawing the community closer to public political discussion, since many policies are updated in the community through public feedback on the services.

CBPM generates a dialogue between users and service providers, between the voice of the community and the decision-making levels of the authorities. The right to citizenship underpins the methodology. This is the starting point for the collective identification of improvements in the services provided to the community and, consequently, for the exercise of citizenship.

The core of CBPM is to build community "dialogue"; to promote a dialogue between the community and the service providers; and to promote the proposals for service improvement that will arise from it through a process of collaboration. Each participant should be encouraged to identify him/herself as an active co-participant who believes in local intervention as a continuous process. To educate is to transform and generate new opportunities. “Thinking critically the practice of today or yesterday one can improve the next practice”.[1] And this will be possible when there is commitment and a change of attitudes.



For understanding CBPM click http://docs.google.com/Presentation?id=dmpjfcv_1f7kvmbrd

[1] FREIRE, 1996, p. 43, 44