Hera (pictured left), aged 15, lives in Gabagaba, a small coastal village an hour and a half south of Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. For young women like Hera living in rural parts of the country, there are many obstacles to achieving a higher education including gender expectations and financial restrictions.
“I left school during year 10 due to COVID-19 so I came back home to live in the village. I couldn’t go back to school because of financial difficulties and as a big sister I wanted my younger siblings to carry on learning,” said Hera.
In her village, Hera is teaching her peers about life skills development as part of ChildFund’s Youth Peace and Protection Champion program. Through her participation in the project, she was able to find a new purpose when she couldn’t return to school.
“During my stay in the village, my little brother had joined this group and he was the one who introduced me and told me a lot about the group. I wasn’t aware of them before.”
Although she was initially hesitant about taking part, her younger brother convinced her to attend a meeting. Most of their meetings are outside, down by the water or under a tree.
“I went, first when I sat with them, they started introducing the group and so on like I have a lot of experiences.
When I first went and sat with them, I learned that we had a lot of similar experiences. I I decided to join the group and bring them into the church so we could talk to more of our peers.”
Hera and the group leading a peer education session.
Like many other young people in her village, Hera has found it difficult to find purpose and meaning in her day-to-day life. This group is a safe place for her to share her experiences, challenges, and her hopes for the future with her peers that can relate.
“I have learn a lot from the other members. You know, as a young person I go through situations which I feel like there’s no need for me cause I’m in the village I can’t do much. Living in the village you have to provide and also do things to make your family happy and contribute.”
ChildFund Papua New Guinea, in partnership with Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) is providing young people across the country with necessary tools and skills to promote peace, resolve conflict and prevent violence and become Youth Peace and Protection Champions (YPPC).
As a YPPC, Hera has gone through extensive training on awareness of rights, respectful relationships, non-violent conflict resolution and peace building. Working alongside five other YPPC’s from her village, they have each claimed a role in the group and together they are creating an action plan to reach more young people in the community.
The group ran a peer education session with about 40 year 8 students. They drew on their training, running different energisers and brainstorming activities to encourage their peers to think about the issues they face and how to best overcome these challenges.
Now Hera, is confident in her leadership skills and abilities. She feels more excited and optimistic about her future. “I have ups and downs but through the advice and experience from this group, they help me a lot.”
After a decade of working in Myanmar, ChildFund is taking pause to reflect, celebrate, and look to the future.
“Reaching 10 years of working with children and families in Myanmar is such a significant milestone. We know there is still plenty of work to be done. In the coming years we’ll continue to look at how we can best support children and young people to be safe, healthy, educated and contributing to their communities,” said Win May Htway, ChildFund Myanmar Country Director.
Here are ten key achievements from the last ten years:
Working safely
Since establishing ourselves in Myanmar, we have worked hard to implement policies and procedures that allow us to work safely and transparently.
Programs with impact
At ChildFund Myanmar, we work across all program areas: child protection, education, and youth resilience. Through these areas we look to improve gender equality, build relationships with local partners, and encourage youth to have a contributing role in their society.
Worked with local partners
The community knows best what they need to create a healthy environment for children and young people. This process allows us to design and implement programs in working together with the community and ensures sustainable change for those who live there.
Online safety in community and in schools
In 2019, ChildFund started its first ever online safety training sessions for children and young people in the country. As part of the Resilience Adolescents with Integrated Life Skills project in Dawei, ChildFund is running 21 training sessions in 10 state schools to educate students on issues such as cyberbullying, oversharing online and how to search for reliable sexual and reproductive health information.
ChildFund believes in empowering children and youth so they can reach their full potential. Our youth empowerment program is training young people on valuable life skills, through workshops, coaching and hands-on leadership practice. Participants in the program have gone on to become Youth Ambassadors in their communities and leaders in local youth groups. Youth groups in project villages across the country were provided with funding to undertake community development projects in collaboration with village elders.
ChildFund established child protection groups in different villages. These groups were used to identify cases of family violence and offer counselling sessions to resolve family conflict. By identifying these cases, more children have been able feel safe at home.
ChildFund supported hospitals and healthcare services to implement COVID-19 preventative measures so that frontline staff could take care of themselves and patients in the community. To ease the economic burden on vulnerable children and families, ChildFund also distributed food packages in Yangon. Vital health information was also shared through conversations with families, distributing pamphlets and videos, and through community announcements. Our trained volunteers explained how members of the community could protect themselves and their families from the spread of COVID-19.
Improved access to education
ChildFund began running non-formal education classes for children from disadvantaged backgrounds in Yangon. Projects like this have helped more children, including those living with a disability, to access a quality education.
ChildFund have run projects to ensure girls and young women have the tools to decide the course of their futures. The project is helping to empower young girls in disadvantaged communities in Myanmar, through sport and leadership and life skills training.
In addition to learning and playing volleyball to stay healthy and develop their team and leadership skills, the project also teaches girls how to plan for their futures, manage money and drive positive social change in their communities. It also provides safe spaces where girls can feel supported.
Through our work and programming, we have built strong relationships with other INGOs working in the country. These partnerships help to deliver the best possible programs we can for children and young people across Myanmar.
Together we are stronger. Looking to the future, we will continue to ensure more children in Myanmar can say: “I am safe. I am educated. I contribute. I have a future.”
