Grassroots comics: tool for social change

- Saurav Kiran Shrestha

It was a great experience that I spent my 3-day among 24 children representing various 16 child clubs of Bhaktapur and Kathmandu, Nepal. All of the children were participating in 4-days TOT training on Grassroots Comics organized by Hatemalo Sanchar in RCRD hall in Bhaktapur. They were eager to learn and get training on Grassroots Comics, whi

ch was also known as Wall comics. I served them as a trainer with Ms. Nirjana Bhatta.

During the training I remembered those days when I got exposed to Wall Comic in 2005. At that time the Save the Children Sweden had organized a workshop in Himalayan Hotel in Lalitpur. The workshop was conducted in English medium. There I participated as an interpreter for Nepalese children. Mr. Sarad Sharma from India was trainer. While participating as an interpreter in the workshop I came to know about Wall comic and its importance in Nepal.

According to the Leif Packalen and Sarad Sh

arma, a Grassroot comic is comics that are made by socially active people themselves, rather than by campaign and art professionals, are genuine voices which encourage local debate in the society. Forthermore, they are inexpensive and the technology is not complicated- pen, papers and access to a copying machine are usually enough.

Comics are stories, which are told visually. They become grassroots comics when they are made by community activists or people about some issue which is relevent to that particular community (cited from: Grassroot comics- a development communication tool, 2007)

At that time, I was working in Hatemalo Sanchar as the Program Manager. My belief on power of Wall comic (Grassroots comic) led me to introduce the Wall comic training in the programs of Hatemalo Sanchar, with the help of Pinky Bijayananda, Nirijana Bhatta, Santosh Maharjan, Nina Maharjan and Sanjog Thakuri (Some of them were children and child club

member at that time). After that training, we had organized more than 6 trainings within 2 years. Plan Nepal also helped us to organized wall comics training in various part of Nepal, particularly, in Makawanpur, Morang/Sunsar, Bake, Rautahat and Nepalgung. As a result, we were able to publish a special edition on Wallcomic in Balsansar magazine.

Today, in the first month of 2011, I am glad to see the children from Bhaktapur a

re hanging their wall comics in the premises of Bhaktapur Darwar Area and attracting people to read the wall comic. More than that, I am proud to proclaim that the children are now applying Wallcomic as a tool to eliminate corporal punishment in their schools and community.

January 9-11, 2011