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Map by Turkish Flame.

In Tharparkar district, SEARCH (Skill Enhancing and Research Home of the Children) works to improve education in remote and rural areas focusing on the quality of schools and on ending corporal punishment in schools. Since 2008 SEARCH has worked together with SPARC (Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Children) to run a campaign against corporal punishment.

The SEARCH Children’s Committee is very important to this. They are a committee of children, for children, by children, and they are a model of the child-to-child approach. The children and the adults who work with them have had training about the UNCRC.

The children on the committee travel to cities and into the countryside, look at what is happening there and tell others about it when they come back. They make it easier for action to be taken against teachers who use corporal punishment. They are linked to SPARC. They sit jointly with them, send reports to them, and write letters to departments. The children also publish their own newspaper named “Voice of Children,” which contains articles they write.

As part of SEARCH and SPARC’s campaign against corporal punishment, adults from the two organisations lectured at different schools and interviewed teachers, and finally documentation about corporal punishment was submitted to the EDO (Executive District Officer) of education. He noticed the things the teachers said and action was taken. Children were also involved in the whole procedure. Read more about this campaign (opens .doc file).

In October 2009, child parliamentarians supported by SPARC held a session at a hotel in Karachi. They talked about school corporal punishment and other bad treatment of children. Read a news story about the debate.

A talk in a school.

People listening to the talk.

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