Mountain Children’s Foundation (MCF)

The Mountain Children’s Foundation (MCF) truly believes that development can only take place when the people themselves lead the effort both in identifying what they want to change and then in making the change happen—and this is best achieved by tapping into the energy and idealism of the young people. MCF is a 20-year-old organization, registered under India’s Societies Act 1860 in 2003.We work in mountain communities, primarily in the state of Uttarakhand, where many villages remain poorly resourced and migration, poverty, and lack of education have left the social fabric in tatters. We work with the children—mostly teenagers—engaging them and helping them improve their communities. Because the needs and priorities are as varied as the communities themselves, the MCF works on a wide range of issues, including promoting child rights/child participation and protection, bridging gender discrimination, health and sanitation, disaster mitigation, governance, environment, education, communication with the oldest generation and more. In order to change the community’s paradigms and practices, the MCF brings the young people together to form children’s groups (or bal sangathans) and provides them with information as well as the leadership and communication skills needed to address their community’s most pressing problems. Children are powerful ambassadors for change because: They have an irrepressible idealism and energy, an inherent rebelliousness that makes them open to new ideas, and are invested in bringing about change that can improve their lives and the lives of their friends and family, They live in the community and can provide far more consistent and permanent messaging, and Parents are more receptive to the urging of their children than directives from perceived outsiders. Thus we ensure local, community wide ownership of every development effort we undertake while also helping the young people develop into more informed, involved and effective citizens. Over the past two decade, we have found that by engaging the children, we gain greater trust and buy-in from the entire community.