Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Childrens clubs have emerged since 1990 as an important new kind of insti-
tution in Nepal. They appear to be both an expression of and a promise for
the advancement of democracy and childrens rights in a new democracy.
Although Nepali children have long been able to demonstrate their compe-
tencies in collaborative agricultural work with their families and commu-
nities, this has not in the past extended to community decision making or
to the creation of projects that they themselves initiate. The progress of the
childrens clubs has been a remarkable natural experiment in the different
ways that children, ages eight to sixteen, can be involved in the manage-
ment of their own organizations. This is because the children were encour-
aged to develop the clubs largely by themselves with modest training and
with few external constraints on their activities or functioning. In this chap-
ter, we describe a participatory evaluation with those clubs that has been
supported by Save the Children Norway and Save the Children USA,
referred to collectively throughout this chapter as Save the Children.
The clubs were not initially developed as part of a conscious decision
by the agencies to spawn a new kind of institution on a grand scale. They
emerged through a combination of factors, of which the desires of the chil-
dren themselves were central. Many villages and some urban neighborhoods
received training in the child-to-child approach to health education and
development (Aarons and Hawes, 1979). Following this training, the chil-
dren did not want to stop meeting and so were enabled to form their own
clubs where they could design their own recreational activities and projects
NEW DIRECTIONS FOR EVALUATION, no. 98, Summer 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. 61
62 YOUTH PARTICIPATORY EVALUATION
Figure 5.1. Most clubs had no meeting space of their own, so the
research often had to be conducted outdoors
clubs from each of the districts where Save the Children had clubs were
invited to send two club members and two advisers as representatives
(Figure 5.1).
analysis and interpretation of the data had to be carried out with the groups
themselves (Boyden and Ennew, 1997; Chambers, 1997; Driskell, 2002;
Hart, 1997; Johnson and others, 1995, 1998; Pretty and others, 1995).
Furthermore, we had to design the methods with the knowledge that many
of the children in the clubs had not attended school and were not literate.
This involved considerable experimentation. In addition, the methods
needed to be able to be completed fairly rapidly because the children work
extremely long hours and have little free time. Some of the participatory
group methods were borrowed and modified from the literature on partici-
patory research with adults (Pretty and others, 1995; Chawla, 2001). Others
were developed specifically for this study. The methods were pilot-tested in
one club and then used in twenty-two clubs sampled from the districts where
the two international agencies worked in the mountains and plains of the
country. We offer here a brief description and evaluation of the relative effec-
tiveness of each of these participatory methods.
Understanding Patterns of Social Exclusion. We first asked the chil-
dren in our pilot community to construct a normal geographic or euclidean
map as the base map for a social census. The children greatly enjoyed this
activity, and if there is plenty of time, we recommend the method for its
value as a warm-up activity. It is important that the children first use loose
materials such as yarn and pieces of cardboard and subsequently fix it with
Figure 5.2. Map making using yarn, cardboard, stones, and other
loose parts
FURTHERING THE DEMOCRATIC GOALS OF CHILDRENS ORGANIZATIONS 65
crayons (Figure 5.2). If pencils or crayons are used first, it is difficult for
children to create a collective expression that they can all agree on.
The map enabled children to identify nonclub members in each house-
hold and allowed for discussion about why this might be the case. It also
resulted in such a good base map that it would be valuable in community
planning. But we concluded that it was too slow a technique, and so we
designed a more streamlined technique that we call social mapping
(Figure 5.3).
Social mapping provides a rapid census of a community. It enables an
analysis of the degree of inclusiveness of club membership and whether
distance is a factor influencing the pattern of exclusion. This method
could also work for the analysis of other organizations, including schools.
The social map is designed to emphasize distance rather than spatial loca-
tion. The base map is simply a series of circles representing five-minute
travel distances away from a dot representing the club. Drawing a cross as
enable the children to easily see and discuss patterns of involvement and
exclusion in activities.
Understanding Organizational Structure and Decision Making.
Arranging cards into diagrams enabled the children to portray the struc-
ture of the club in terms of different roles and decision-making responsi-
bilities. It used the same materials as card sorting for categorizing and
ranking: colored cards expressing different sex and age groups on which
the children write their name or an icon to express their identity. The chil-
dren then arranged these cards into diagrams (Figure 5.4). They clustered
people should be entirely free from adult influence, and so they will deny
their influence! We believe that some adult influence on a childrens orga-
nization is not only to be expected but is healthy. But these influences
should also be part of an evaluation. To establish a basis for discussion,
we used drama to reveal the subtle patterns of adult power and influence
in the clubs.
We told the children that we wanted to discuss with them how deci-
sions are made in the club and suggested that it would be useful if we first
did some acting. We asked them to act out some situations that may not
have happened yet in their club or that might never happen. We suggested
different scenarios and asked them to create a little play about each of them.
Groups of children in the pilot community first used puppets but rejected
them after concluding that they constrained their acting too much.
Performance, particularly dance, was common for the children, and many
children also had experience with community theater. The issues that we
chose for the scenarios were age of graduation from the club, ejection of
people from the club for a bad problem of discipline, how elections are run,
70 YOUTH PARTICIPATORY EVALUATION
and how decisions are made about who will attend training workshops. For
example, children were asked to imagine that someone who had just
reached the upper age limit (usually sixteen years old) wished to stay in the
club and then were instructed to make a play about how this persons
request would be considered. They had to think who would be involved in
the decision and to create the cast of characters. They then gave a perfor-
mance to show how the decision was made. If the actors got stuck and did
not know what to say next, they could ask the audience of other club
members for help. After each of the skits, the children who were not per-
formers commented on the accuracy of the performance as an expression
of what would have really happened. Then all of the club members were
asked to discuss the scenario and to consider whether they could improve
on how they might deal with this issue if it were to come up in the future.
This method worked extremely well for inspiring discussion on this
subtle question. But because the performances were time-consuming, there
was often insufficient time for the analysis and interpretation of the sce-
narios by the children; the method itself became too much of the focus.
Comparing Activity Preferences. A matrix was designed to enable
boys and girls of different ages to systematically compare their favorite activ-
ities in the club with one another and with other activities that they would
like to see happening in the club. First of all, it is essential that the list of
activities that are to be compared with one another be generated by the
maximal number of group members. Children formed themselves into four
groups: girls and boys younger and older than twelve years. Each group
identified three favorite activities: one that they currently carried out in the
club, one that they carry out outside the club, and one that they do not do
anywhere but wish they could do in the club. We found that the most effec-
tive way to engage all of the children in this process and to think openly
with the peers in their subgroup was to have them plan short mime skits of
favorite activities that they then performed for the rest of the members
(Figure 5.6).
Altogether, twelve categories of activities were generated. These were
used to create a twelve-by-twelve matrix. The names of the categories
were written along the horizontal and vertical axes. These categories were
also identified by different colors and simple picture symbols to make
them accessible to nonliterate children. The matrix was hung on a wall,
and the four groups of children sat in groups in front of it. For each pair
of comparisons on the chart, each group discussed among themselves
before choosing which their favorite was. They then placed a colored dot
on the chart to reveal their preference. At the end of all of the paired
choices, the scores were tallied up by the children to see what the rank-
ing of activity preferences was for each group. These lists were drawn up
for each group so that the children could compare the four different sets
of rankings. They compared the lists of younger boys and girls and older
boys and girls against their current club activities (Figure 5.7). They used
FURTHERING THE DEMOCRATIC GOALS OF CHILDRENS ORGANIZATIONS 71
be to carry out the activity separately with each of the different age and sex
groups and only bring the children together to compare their different data
after they have each completed their analyses.
Identifying External Influences. Venn diagrams were used to enable
children to collectively identify all of the people and organizations that have
any influence on the running of their club. The children were given pieces
of cards of different size, color, and shape to arrange on the floor around
their club, as represented by one large piece of card. They were told that
they could display these cards to express how much influence different
organizations or people have on their club. They used the size of the cards
FURTHERING THE DEMOCRATIC GOALS OF CHILDRENS ORGANIZATIONS 73
Figure 5.8. The use of Venn diagrams for children to identify all
of the people and organizations that have any influence on the
running of their club
P
Key:
P P P P P = Parents
A = Adults
YC = Youth club
A WG = Womens group
Shankheswari Bal C-t-C = Child-to-child
SCUS = Save the Children
Club (Nuwakot)
A CB/CD = Community based
child development
CDA CDA = Child development
assistant
CB/CD
C-t-C = Organization
SCUS
= Individual male
YC WG = Individual female
to express the relative amount of influence and color or shape to show the
type of organization or whether it was a person or an organization. If it was
a direct influence, then the card should touch the club card. If it were an
indirect influence, then the card would be placed some distance from the
club or would touch another card, which in turn touched their club card
(Figure 5.8).
The method was at first too complex. We had cards that differed in
sizes, shapes, and colors and placed at different distances away from the
club. There were too many variables for the children to think of and some-
times led to confusion. We concluded that it is necessary to lay out fewer
types of card options for classification and to proceed slowly so that all chil-
dren can remember what organization each person or card stands for. We
placed initials on the card and found that children remember these, even if
they cannot read, as long as one proceeds systematically and slowly. When
children were all clear about the meaning of the symbols, this method
greatly improved their ability to have a group discussion on external rela-
tionships and influences on their organization. From this method, children
were able to rethink how to relate to local organizations, and we were able
to make some useful recommendations to Save the Children regarding the
provision and training of advisers.
74 YOUTH PARTICIPATORY EVALUATION
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