Youth public movement – revival of experience

The international public organization Rights & Prosperity presented the results of its project implemented in orphanages and boarding schools located in Vakhsh, J.Rumi, Temurmalik and Vose regions of Khatlon District. According to the results of the 12-month project activity, significant efforts were made to improve legal capacities of both students of the listed above institutions and representatives of Departments of Children’s Rights in four regions of Khatlon District. Furthermore, the project included a series of actions on involvement of junior students into project activity through “Peer-to-Peer” lessons and a series of other events aimed at coordination of efforts of child protection bodies in these regions.
The history of youth movements as well as the concept of these movements under the Tajik legislation were demonstrated in the “Development of youth public movements” presentation. The presentation also covered the opportunities of youth movements under the international and national legislations and listed current problems these movements are facing with in both Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. Several presentations were presented by students of boarding schools from Vakhsh and Vose regions, who passed through Rights and Prosperity’s legal training courses. They are all leaders or members of legal groups in their orphanages. The subject was developed further by Neki, Zumrad and Center of Additional Works NGOs, which actively attract children to social life. They basically work with children with disabilities, street children and orphans.
The participants of the workshop have agreed to call child labor and education of children the most acute and pressing problems. Former youth organizations of the Soviet times (pioneers, which is similar to Boy Scouts, and Komsomol) are not operating today due to lack of material and technical base, professional staff and funding. In these conditions coordination between governmental structures and public organizations is crucial. The Department of Children’s Rights of Khatlon District has expressed its willingness to cooperate with public organizations in the given direction and is ready to coordinate such kind of activity.
Representatives of the mass media noted that very little attention is paid to problems of children from the risk group in the press. According to them, no public opinion is being formed on the given issue and there is such an impression that there is no problem at all. It sounds ironic but international and public organizations focus on children when the latter find themselves in risk groups.