नागरिक पोष्ट News

Kathmandu - The elected representatives, school nurses, and child club members have expressed commitment to the protection of child rights and its establishment through the promotion of CFLG. 

Four phases of training for School Nurses, Elected representatives, and child club members of various Local Governments of Bagmati province were organized successfully, to strengthen the capacity of the relevant stakeholder for the protection and promotion of child rights and CFLG for school nurses.

All these capacity-building programs were conducted under the "Together for Protection Project" implemented by ECPAT Luxembourg with Shakti Samuha and the Center for Legal Research and Resource Development (CeLRRd), which is being funded by the United States Department of State. The project is being implemented at 20 Local Governments of 11 districts of Gandaki, Karnali and Bagmati province. Pediatric Nurses Association of Nepal (PNAN) coordinated the conduction of the training for School Nurses.

Two series of three days of residential training was conducted for a total of 60 Staff Nurses working at 60 schools in Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Lalitpur, Kavre, Makwanpur, Chitwan, and Rshuwa district of Bagmati province from 21-26 July 2023. The training was facilitated by Mr. Tilottam Paudel, President of Jcycn, and Ms. Sumikshya Khadka, Program Coordinator of the National CFLG Forum. Dr. Ram Hari Chapagain from NEPAS, Apsara Pandey from PNAN, Debaki Acharya (Ph.D.) from NCRC, and Ram Bahadur Chandra were present as guest facilitators. Ms.  Rita Mahato, and Ms. Unisha Dahal from the Health Directorate of Heatuda, Bagmati Province were also present as guest speakers to motivate the participants in the training.

School Nurses have been recruited at various schools to ensure the proper health, and wellbeing of the students. Whereas, they hadn't received any orientations on adopting a Child-Friendly approach, behavior, and practice. Most of them were unaware of the existing child protection mechanism at the Local Level. The participants said that the program is highly relevant and useful to effectively play their roles as school nurses, and aid the most vulnerable children.

Ms. Amrita Poudyal, Head of South Asia Program of ECPAT Luxembourg provided closing remarks and certificates to the participants.

Similarly, the residential training for the elected representatives and child club members of the Uttargaya Rural Municipality was conducted from 28-30 June 2023 simultaneously. Mr. Tilottam Paudel and Ms. Sumikshya Khadka facilitated the training for elected representatives. Mr. Ashok Khanal, Coordinator of the National CFLG Forum, and Mr. Bikash Acharya facilitated the training for child club members.

Mr. Madhav Prasad Aryal, Chairperson, Ms. Chameli Gurung, Vice-Chair, and Mr. Deepak Adhikari, Chief Administrative Officer of Uttargaya R-Municipality encouraged the participants to work committedly as guest speakers.

Less budget allocated for children, lack of adequate sports material and playground, Lack of adequate capacity building programs including Self- Defense program for girls, Child Marriage, lack of intervention on the personal development of children, Lack of safe space for children and so on were raised as immediate concerns of the children at the Local Government.

A discussion forum was created where the child club members were provided with the opportunity to interact with the elected representatives and share their pressing concerns.  32 Stakeholders including 7 teachers, 23 elected representatives, and 2 local government authorities were present in the training for stakeholders, and 23 children were present in the training for child club members.

The participants of the training expressed their gratitude and said that they learned about strengthening local child protection mechanisms including Toll-free no. 104 and 1098, increasing investment in children, effective intervention on child-friendly, nutrition-friendly, and youth-friendly campaigns, recruitment of school nurses and psychosocial counselor at all schools, and their capacity building, and protection of children from modern slavery, human trafficking, harmful practices, and so on.