Journey in Childen's Participation

For the children themselves their right to participation is the opening up of a new and exciting experience. For the first time they see the world of adults, they begin to understand how this world works and what they need to do to intervene in it. This experience is often tinged with disappointment, as at times they find that we, adults, haven’t made such a good job of it, but there is also joy in the realisation that we do care and that we have learnt to respect them. What the children need from us is an honest, unbiased and in-depth presentation of the way things are and the tools and skills to enable them to build a better world. This document is an attempt to share the body of knowledge that we have acquired and also to raise several questions those still require answers. This is by no means a definitive position as the arena of children’s participation is only marginally explored. In the course of our work, children constantly reveal new dimensions of themselves and these insights constitute a continual learning process for us adults. This document, however, does not document processes or methodology and only tries to share some conceptual insights. It is a document to which we will continue to add and modify as our insights widen and as children continue to teach us more about themselves.