Why Mountains,
Why Children?
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MCF – The Mountain Children’s Forum
MCF The Mountain Children’s Forum taps into the idealism of youth and the power of collective action to help children transform their communities from the ground up. We turn traditional development models upside and inside out. In this way, we catalyze sustainable, lasting change that spans generations and empowers young people as stewards of their mountain ecosystems and cultures.
Mission
We will work to illuminate the lives of mountain children across the world, to serve as a repository and network of knowledge and resources to uplift and support mountain children and their communities.
Vision
We envision a world where children in mountain regions can thrive, have access to the resources they need to advocate for their communities and each other, and to preserve, protect and sustain precious mountain ecosystems, knowledge systems, and ways of being.
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Future Conservationists and Environmentalists: Children were so effective at planting and nurturing trees in their villages that village leaders in India now routinely hand their allotment of seedlings to the children’s groups.
Equity through education: in India, boys became our greatest advocates for giving their sisters more access to education.
Changing the nature of governance by knowing your rights: During MCF India’s Right to Information campaign, which taught children how to access the rights that were granted to them by law, the children led their communities in using Right to Information requests to address long standing problems (teachers not attending school, the lack of water and electricity in the village etc). The children’s activities actually changed the nature of governance in the community as the community became more aware of problems affecting their children.
Changing the conversation, changing harmful habits: People in many Indian rural communities did not access safe and hygienic toilets. A hygiene and sanitation campaign by our partner in India, the Mountain Children’s Foundation, shows that children are remarkably effective at changing long-held habits – more than 250 families built and started using toilets as a result of the information and advocacy of their children.