A Voice For the Voiceless
The Advocacy Project helps marginalized communities to tell their story, claim their rights and produce social change. We recruit graduate students to volunteer as Peace Fellows with partners.
- Africa
- Asia
- Afghan Women's Network
- The Blind Education and Rehabilitation Development Organization
- eHomemakers
- Home for Human Rights
- Jagaran Media Center
- Oruj Learning Center
- Association for Empowerment of People with Disabilities
- Backward Society Education (BASE)
- Backward Society Education Profiles
- The Love Blanket Project
- Chintan Environmental Action and Research Group
- Women's Reproductive Rights Program (WRRP)
- Europe
- Latin America and the Caribbean
- Middle East
- North America
- Outreach Partners
- Criteria for Partners
The Impact of Service
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The Artists
Participating Villages
The Making of the Blankets
From June to July, 2010, BASE staff members and a volunteer (The Advocacy Project Peace Fellows, Adrienne Henck and Karie Cross) visited nine Child Friendly Villages throughout southwest Nepal. Child Club members and some Child 
Friendly Committee members gathered at the village community center to participate in the project. Between ten and fifty villagers attended each blanket making session which lasted approximately one and a half hours.
First, a BASE staff member explained the purpose of the project and answered questions from the children. The children were encouraged to think about child labor and children’s rights. Then, the children worked in groups (usually 4-8 members) to make the blanket squares. Each group produced one square. After discussing the idea they wanted to represent, each group drew a practice drawing using markers and paper.
Each group then chose a solid-colored cloth square for the backing. The children cut the shapes for the picture from scap salwar kurta (a kind of traditional Nepali clothing worn by women) cloth that had been donated by a local tailor. Using need and thread, they then sewed the cloth shapes onto the square backing. After finishing, they wrote the group member names and ages, and the meaning of their picture on a piece of paper. Finally, a photo was taken of each group holding their completed blanket square.
After all the villages had been visited and squares had been made, a process that lasted for about one month, the same local tailor who had donated the scrap cloth sewed the squares together. Borders were sewn around each square and a backing for the entire blanket was added. Poorly sewn pieces were also repaired. 32 squares had been created and made into two square blankets with 16 squares each.
The Blanket Goes International
Two Love Blankets were produced during the summer of 2010. One blanket will stay in Nepal, and one will go to America to be used for outreach. These blankets are not effective advocacy tools if they are never used! Below are some suggestions for incorporating the Love Blanket into BASE’s everyday work.
In each of the following scenarios, the hope is that people will see the Love Blanket and ask what it means. This will give BASE an opportunity to use the blanket to tell the story of the purchase dvds onlineChild Friendly Village initiative.
Recommended Situations for Using the Love Blanket:
When asked about the blanket, BASE can use these talking points:
Everyone generally acknowledges that children need good education. But the blanket is a great way to jumpstart a new conversation about education and children’s rights that may have grown old from repetition. It is a special tool because it is concrete, visual proof that children in Nepal’s poorest villages are demanding good education for everyone. Through the blanket, the children can speak directly to whomever BASE shows their work.
The Love Blankets should be shown along with profiles, pictures, and videos that the Advocacy Project Peace Fellows (Adrienne and Karie) have produced for BASE. This will enable BASE to more completely tell the story of the Child Friendly Village initiative, using multiple technological mediums. Back
The Love Blanket Project
As part of its campaign to eliminate child labor, BASE is developing a network of "child friendly" villages in the west of the country. The idea is to create an environment where children can shelter from slavery and escape from the ever-present threat of child labor. Within each village, BASE is trying to ensure that every child goes to school, and that parents and communities accept responsibility for protecting child rights. BASE has designated 313 villages in the districts of Dang, Banke, Bardiya, Kailali and Kanchanpur as Child Friendly Villages.
During the summer of 2010, BASE asked its two AP Peace Fellows - Adrienne Henck and Karie Cross - to help children in the villages tell their own story through a design. 183 children in 9 villages participated. They decided to make two Love Blankets, so called because children in labor are deprived of love and because the villages seek to give love and affection to their children. According to BASE, the nine villages that are cooperating in the project are saying: “ Through this blanket we made for you, we arevowing to protect you” .
| “ The worst part about child labor is that we can’ t get any love or affection from our families because we are away from them. Blankets provide a kind of security. We feel warm and comforted when we are surrounded by a blanket.” |
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The Artists
Majgaon Village |
Surmi Katan Village The ball is necessary for physical practice. The umbrella is used when it is raining. The soap is used for cleaning. |
Madui Village The school aged children are cleaning dishes at another person's home. |
Tedhuwa Village Plants absorb the rays of the sun until they grow. Only then do they become strong. If they do not get the sun's rays, then cannot grow. Similarly, if we do not give freedom to our children, they cannot develop fully. So we have to make a fresh environment for them in order to make their future bright. |
Majgaon Village Children are going to school. |
Majgaon Village The message of this picture is that children are going to school. |
Chootkigumna Village The students are going to school. Children like to go to school. The most important thing for children is education. In school, children are playing, dancing and taking quizzes so they really enjoy it there. |
Amauri Village School gives us education. We cannot doing anything with out (water) handpump. We get knowledge from reading books. We write with the pen. The houses with flowers are beautiful. |
Majgaon Village  The students are going to school. |
Amauri Village The books are for reading. The pencil is for writing. The bag is for carrying books. The tree is for having shelter. |
Surmi Katan Village The picture shows the the flag of Nepal. Books are for reading. Pens are for writing. The ruler is for keeping inside the book. |
Majgaon Village The messages of this picture are that water is being supplied to the flowers, children are playing football, people are going to the toilet, and the sun is coming from the east. |
Majgaon Village There is child labor in Nepal. Even the government has announced freedom for child laborers, but still the child laborers are working inside house owners homes and landowners homes. We want to give freedom to these children through our message. However, so much of the child labor system is out of our control. |
Tedhuwa Village By the lake, the newly blossomed Kamal flowers bloom and baby doves find their freedom, flying freely and growing strong. Similarly, our children should get freedom and education, so they can make their future bright. |
Majgaon Village  People are participating in an environment and santition campaign around the village. |
Madui Village In this picture, children are shown going to school. |
Participating Villages
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The Making of the Blankets
From June to July, 2010, BASE staff members and a volunteer (The Advocacy Project Peace Fellows, Adrienne Henck and Karie Cross) visited nine Child Friendly Villages throughout southwest Nepal. Child Club members and some Child Friendly Committee members gathered at the village community center to participate in the project. Between ten and fifty villagers attended each blanket making session which lasted approximately one and a half hours. First, a BASE staff member explained the purpose of the project and answered questions from the children. The children were encouraged to think about child labor and children’s rights. Then, the children worked in groups (usually 4-8 members) to make the blanket squares. Each group produced one square. After discussing the idea they wanted to represent, each group drew a practice drawing using markers and paper.
Each group then chose a solid-colored cloth square for the backing. The children cut the shapes for the picture from scap salwar kurta (a kind of traditional Nepali clothing worn by women) cloth that had been donated by a local tailor. Using need and thread, they then sewed the cloth shapes onto the square backing. After finishing, they wrote the group member names and ages, and the meaning of their picture on a piece of paper. Finally, a photo was taken of each group holding their completed blanket square. After all the villages had been visited and squares had been made, a process that lasted for about one month, the same local tailor who had donated the scrap cloth sewed the squares together. Borders were sewn around each square and a backing for the entire blanket was added. Poorly sewn pieces were also repaired. 32 squares had been created and made into two square blankets with 16 squares each.
| Challlenge | Learning | Recommendation |
| During farming times, all village adults and many children must spend their days in the fields. Consequently, they do not have time to participate in projects such as the Love Blanket. | Rice planting season is a bad time to make the blanket. | To ensure full participation, future blanket making projects should be scheduled during agricultural down times. |
| Children are not skilled at cutting and sewing cloth. | Cutting and sewing cloth may not be the best technique for producing the blanket. | Existing participant skills should be utilized in the blanket production process. Also, because many children have experience drawing and the traditional painting technique of mithilia is common in some villages, painting on cloth may be a more suitable technique for producing the blanket. |
| Each village visit and blanket-making session was very brief (about 2 hours). | 1. Brief visits make it difficult to secure sustainable interest. 2. Brief visits make it difficult for participants to produce a high-quality product. |
The structure of the project should be more focused. Instead of visiting many villages for short periods of time, it may be better to work closely with one village over a long period of time (multiple visits). This way, the participants will have time to fully understand the project, become committed to ensuring its success and have the time to produce a high-quality blanket. |
The Blanket Goes International
Two Love Blankets were produced during the summer of 2010. One blanket will stay in Nepal, and one will go to America to be used for outreach. These blankets are not effective advocacy tools if they are never used! Below are some suggestions for incorporating the Love Blanket into BASE’s everyday work.
In each of the following scenarios, the hope is that people will see the Love Blanket and ask what it means. This will give BASE an opportunity to use the blanket to tell the story of the purchase dvds onlineChild Friendly Village initiative.
Recommended Situations for Using the Love Blanket:
- Carry the blanket in marches/rallies/protests about child labor or children’s rights.
- Display the blanket at Child Club Assemblies and during elections.
- Take the blanket when trying to persuade parents of child laborers to bring their children back home.
- Show it to the children at the BASE boarding house who are being rehabilitated, to encourage them.
- Mention the blanket in interviews and/or press releases, and use video footage and photos (created by Adrienne and Karie) whenever possible. It’s a wonderfully visual representation of an abstract concept that can be difficult to get across.
- Take it to policy meetings with officials in Kathmandu, UN members, and other NGOS to help share the story of Child Clubs and CFVs.
- Put pictures of the blanket on the BASE website and facebook pages, to show the community what the Child Clubs have made.
- Use it an example to create blankets annually (e.g., at the Child Assembly) and sell them in America to raise funds for the Child Clubs.
When asked about the blanket, BASE can use these talking points:
- Child Club members believe in every child’s right to education.
- They work hard to motivate children in their villages to finish school, because a good education is vital for a bright future.
- Child Clubs raise funds to buy school supplies for the poorest children, often for ex-child laborers who have returned home.
- Child Clubs provide children with a voice through a democratic process of deliberation and elections; thus, they are training students to become responsible citizens of Nepal’s new democracy.
- The Child Friendly Village model has almost eradicated child labor from participating villages.
Everyone generally acknowledges that children need good education. But the blanket is a great way to jumpstart a new conversation about education and children’s rights that may have grown old from repetition. It is a special tool because it is concrete, visual proof that children in Nepal’s poorest villages are demanding good education for everyone. Through the blanket, the children can speak directly to whomever BASE shows their work.
The Love Blankets should be shown along with profiles, pictures, and videos that the Advocacy Project Peace Fellows (Adrienne and Karie) have produced for BASE. This will enable BASE to more completely tell the story of the Child Friendly Village initiative, using multiple technological mediums. Back