South Asia listens to the children!

15 May 2004

A South Asian documentary that looks at how children and young adults are shaping their own lives and futures has been a resounding success across the sub-region.

The film's message has resonated with many South Asians from all walks of life. From Kabul to Kathmandu, and from Delhi to Male, and in nine other cities, public launches have attracted policy and decision-makers, child rights activists, journalists and concerned public.

Children played a key role in both telling the story and then helping to launch and promote it at a series of promotional events in eight countries of South Asia.

One story Many voices Listen to the Children is available in English and 13 South Asian languages: Assamese, Bangla, Divehi, Dzongkha, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Pashtun, Sinhala, Tamil and Urdu. Contact TVE Asia Pacific or partners for broadcast and non-broadcast copies.

The documentary, Listen to the Children, was produced on an editorially independent basis by TVE in late 2003 with support from the UNICEF Regional Office for South Asia (Unicef ROSA). Filmed on location in Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka, it featured inspiring stories from each country related to child participation in practice.

UNICEF - the United Nations Children's Fund - believes children should be given a greater chance to take part in the decisions that affect their lives. Building on children's right to expression enshrined in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, UNICEF calls the concept 'child participation.'

Coming three years after the South Asian High Level Meeting on Investing in Children, held in Kathmandu in May 2001, this documentary also probes how much the governmental, business and civil society leaders gathered there have translated their pledges and rhetoric into action.

The half-hour film opens with UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy saying: "UNICEF firmly believes that through participation children learn to respect others, to express themselves constructively, to negotiate differences, to make responsible life choices, and to grow into informed, optimistic citizens."

It then follows stories of four children -- two boys and two girls -- in South Asia whose personal stories explore how children's involvement, at the appropriate level, can benefit them, their families and communities.

For example, 16-year-old Shati from Tangail, Bangladesh, works as a part-time photographer when she is not at school. Her family and neighbours were initially not supportive, but as her business flourished, they have accepted her choice. Today, she earns money and sets an example to other girls.

"I'm taking pictures regularly and its becoming popular…and it's a good source of income," Shati says, adding: "My future plan is to open a studio and I want to become a famous photographer."

Or take the case of Deepak, aged 14. He is one of Delhi's 50,000 street children trying to eke out a meagre living, often recycling rubbish. But he is involved in producing and selling a newspaper, which teaches him - and others like him - valuable skills while also giving them a sense of purpose.

The other two case studies are about Sita, a Nepali girl who works as a social volunteer against AIDS, and Ehalingham, a Sri Lankan boy lives in Sivanteevu

In each case, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) or development project has played a part in bringing skills, direction or resources to disadvantaged children. But - in a departure from traditional charity or development work - it's the children who decide what is done and how.

Deepak and Shati are just two of the thousands of South Asian children - speaking out, finding solutions to their problems, making decisions about what matter to them.

In early 2004, TVE Asia Pacific mobilised its Video Resource Centres and other partners in South Asia to version the programme into 13 key South Asian languages in eight countries, viz: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Click here for full list of languages.

It was not just a case of dubbing the programme into these languages. Partners were also supported to engage in active promotion of the versions by:

• organising public launch events for the versions
• distributing free copies on VHS, VCD or DVD; and
• arranging the broadcast of versioned programme on local/national television

"Exceptionally for a development or donor agency, UNICEF ROSA agreed to fund these vital elements that value add and extend the outreach of the programme to tens of millions of people across South Asia," says Manori Wijesekera, head of distribution at TVE Asia Pacific. "This is a model for film production and distribution that we have long advocated."

By end April, launch events had been held in all 8 countries creating news headlines and generating discussion and debate on many aspects of child participation. Highlights included:

• Development Alternatives invited Deepak as the chief guest when launching the Hindi version on April 8 at the Press Club in Varanasi. He spoke of his story and the work of his group of street children. He also declared his ambition: to become a lawyer who will fight for justice for street children. The launch was co-organised by the Varanasi-based Society for Social Action Research, which held a children's painting competition as part of the event.
• In Chennai, TVE partner Trust HELP launched the Tamil version on April29. A rehabilitated child worker presented the first copy to child artist Kalyanee. In the audience were other former child labourers. Reporting on the event, India's leading daily The Hindu wrote:"The children who watched the documentary saw in the four characters their own determination and the grim battle to fight all odds to survive and to change their lives…".
• In Male, Minister of Gender, Family Development and Social Security, Aneesa Ahmed, launched the Divehi version on April 22, and called for increased child participation in development work. The launch was jointly organised by Ameer Ahmed School's Change Makers Club, a student body involved in child rights issues, and Club Hulhevi, which is versioning "Listen to the Children!" in the Maldives. Haveeru, the leading Maldivian newspaper, reported: "After the film was screened at the launch, there was considerable debate amongst a small but lively gathering, consisting of cabinet ministers, leading NGOs, media personnel, and students."
• WWF Pakistan's news item of the Urdu language launch

The full list of partners who produced language versions and are currently distributing it is available.

Listen to the Children was directed and produced by Di Tatham for TVE. Its associate producers were Aminul Islam (from CDL, Bangladesh) and Mohan Bista (NEFEJ, Nepal).

A re-edited version, renamed Listen to the Kids, was broadcast on BBC World in February 2004 as part of TVE's fourth series of Life programmes.

Source: TVE Asia Pacific