On 23^rd of January, one of our most inspiring child rights focused project partners, Shaishav, celebrated their eight annual day meeting.

This remarkable event saw 1200 children from across India converge on Bhavnagar city, in the Gujarat state, to celebrate the success of our project partner's child union - Balsena.

Balsena, one of Shaishav’s most innovative projects, offers children a safe environment to voice their concerns and help them solve problems at home, school or in their communities.

All the children in Balsena are advocates for their own rights and continue to work together to ensure their collective voice and concerns are heard.

The day’s events

This year’s theme was education and saw 80 children receive life skills training, teaching them skills such as

communication, problem solving and decision making. These children will act as community teachers to other children involved in Balsena.

The day’s events were kicked off with the hoisting of Balsena’s ceremonial flag led by Mr. Indu Bahi (pictured middle left, second from the right), a renowned human rights activist who went on to rally the crowd with songs and addressed the children in a speech expressing the need for stronger educational rights for children in India.

Next, the children presented Balsena’s annual report, highlighting its successes in 2010 including the child audit account. The audit (pictured below) is just one of Balsena’s activities which see children take control of their rights. In this case, the audit encourages Balsena members to collect surveys from their local community
to reveal vulnerable children and the problems being face in their home life, school or area, which can then be presented to local authorities.

The second half of the event was devoted to the children who came on stage and expressed their experiences and thoughts with the audience.

Other guests included Professor Amal Kumar (pictured left) from Bhavnagar University who became an honorary Balsena member and stressed the need to improve the skills of young children in order to broaden their horizons.

Mr. Vikram Singh Chauhan (pictured below left), General Manager at Radisson Hotel, also attended the ceremony and expressed the need for the private sector to work more closely with the development sector, offering his guidance to Childreach International India to strengthen their work. He was accompanied by Mr. Lakhman Singh Ranawat, Chief Engineer at Radisson Hotel, who entertained children in workshops, demonstrating his support for child rights in India.

Find out more about Balsena and how you can support the children that run it.

This is the first stage of the child audit: children travelled around their local communities, mapping vulnerable areas, local amenities and danger points for children.

This section of the audit describes in detail the positives and negatives of amenities in the local area highlighting the issues affecting children's rights in their community.