Invitation The Comics Wallpaper Exhibition

[Guest guest]

Dear Members of the Forum,

Greetings from the Positive Women's Network (PWN)!

We would like to take this opportunity to invite you and your esteemed

colleagues to please join the " Children's Voices " - An Advocacy Forum and Comics

Exhibition in India Habitat Centre (IHC), New Delhi on 19-20 March, 2010.*

In collaboration with UNICEF, PWN began work with children affected by

HIV/AIDS in 2006. A national consultation which brought together 53

children from 10 states was conducted in 2006 to enable children to present

their issues to the Government and to ensure that policies incorporated their

needs.

Following this successful initiative PWN bagan its journey

towards developing children's advocacy forums at the state-level. This

required building the capacities of members on working with children and

leveraging suppport from external resource agencies for technical inputs.

One such agency which was kind enough to support these processes is World Comics

India (WCI) -- a collective of cartoonists, media persons and grassroots

activists.

WCI promotes comics as a communicatiomn tool and as a mode of self-expression in

remote and difficult areas in South Asia and other countries. WCI trained

children in developing Comics Wall Papers

narrating stories about their lives and issues.

This has been found to be an excellent medium for communicating difficult topics

and also generating interest in the audience which was obvious in a Comics

Campaign by children in Madurai district conducted as part of this project.

Around 40 children are now part of Children's Advocacy Forums in Delhi, Tamil

Nadu, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. PWN has conducted Comics Workshops during the

months of January and February, 2010 with these children.

The children will raise various issues around their lives which may focus on

their school environment, hospitals they visit, family environment, incidents on

the streets or related stigma faced by them in the community.

These comics are being developed in the form of wallpapers which will be put up

for exhibition during the " Children's Voices " event on 19-20 March, 2010 at IHC,

New Delhi. Key stakeholders from Government and non-government sectors will join

this event.

The " Children's Voices " exhibition is an opportunity for children to express

themselves to the public and share their views and creativity.

The comics are self-explanatory and reveal the thought process and ideas of each

child participant.

We hope you, your, friends, colleagues and family will join us!

Regards,

PWN+

Positive Women Network

e-mail: <poswonet@...>