Leading the Way: Capacity Building for Child Club Members
Sustainable social change requires internal champions — people embedded in local social networks, present long after an external programme ends. WCSD recognised that children and adolescents are uniquely positioned to serve this role. Nepal's Child Clubs are well-established institutions within schools, and by investing in their members' knowledge, skills, and confidence, WCSD found a mechanism for planting seeds that could grow independently across years, not just months.
What Was Done
A three-day intensive capacity-building training was conducted for over 105 Child Club members across three schools. Participatory in design — combining interactive sessions, group discussions, role plays, and practical exercises — the training covered types of gender-based violence, Nepal's legal frameworks on child rights and child marriage, dowry laws and criminal penalties, formal and informal reporting mechanisms, and leadership skills including facilitating peer conversations and supporting friends who disclose abuse.
Why It Matters
The concept of the change agent is central to WCSD's theory of change. A teenager who knows child marriage is illegal and knows how to report it creates a different dynamic at home and school. A group of students collectively committed to speaking out changes the culture of an institution. Multiple participants left the training with concrete personal commitments: to share knowledge with absent classmates, to establish peer discussion groups, and to act as informal advisors to younger students. These are modest but meaningful steps — and they reflect the kind of internalisation that turns a workshop into a movement.
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