Pinggang Village Learns to Listen to Children's Voice

Usually younger people, including children, must listen to the older people. There are many older people who still ignore children's voices and aspirations. That is why many children's voices remains silent because no one is willing to listen.

Pinggang is a village located in Cibal district, Manggarai. This village is attempting to change minds. One of the efforts taken by the village is embodied in the preparations for National Children's Day and Indonesia's Independence Day celebration.

Here, the children are invited to attend meetings and give opinions. Their opinions are then applied to the celebration of both events.

The members of Pinggang Child Forum were asked to give presentations and ideas in front of teachers and the village government. Almost all of the children's opinions were well received by the committee.

Through these actions, Pinggang village has implemented the policy of Child Friendly City which was initiated by the Women's Empowerment and Child Protection Ministry in 2005. The Child Friendly City is the effort from the state government to quicken the implementation of Child Right Convention for the development.

Pinggang village has conducted small steps to implement the program of Child Friendly Regency in Manggarai. There will be no qualified generation in the future if children's rights are not fulfilled from today.