“My Life, My Vision” has been developed as an advocacy and awareness project, aimed at providing street children with a chance to use photography and creative arts to express their situations to mainstream society. SathSath will select and carefully screen a small group of street children to participate in this project. The children will be chosen depending on their interest, motivational levels and commitment. Once selected for the project, the children will be provided with accommodation at SathSath, where they will receive support, counseling and guidance to aid their social reintegration to mainstream society.
For a 12 month period, the children will be involved in regular photography training classes, and participate in weekly community access visits where they will have the opportunity to take photographs in different regions and settings. The children will be supported to develop their individual styles, and be encouraged to experiment creatively using the cameras in different situations. In conjunction to the photographic training, the children will involved in a creative arts, where they will be able to develop skills using paints, pencils and other creative medium. The art course will complement the children’s photography by assisting them develop their creative and visual capacity. The children will develop a folio of their work, and by the end of the project their best photographs, drawings and paintings will be displayed in an exhibition in Kathmandu. 
The exhibition will be held for a 2 week period, during which time we will invite journalists to attend a media sensitization program and cover the project via a media campaign. The purpose of the media being involved will be to reach a larger portion of the community and increase the awareness impact of the project.
In addition to the photographic training and visual arts course, the children will be streamed into SathSath’s Street and Theatre Drama program. (See Annex A) This program will play a pivotal role in the children’s social development, as it provides street children with the opportunity to work together with school children to advocate on child rights. This social intermixing is highly valuable, as it enables the children from both groups to develop respect and understanding of each other.
During the course of the project each child will receive psychosocial counseling and be helped to identify their future goals and aspirations. The children will be required to undertake aptitude testing and vocational training (a service already offered by SathSath) or attend SathSath’s alternative education program.
Upon completion of “My Life, My Vision” the children will have the opportunity to continue their involvement in SathSath’s Street and Theatre Drama Program, which is ongoing and self sustainable. The children will continue living at SathSath (financed by The Street and Theatre Drama fund), where each individual will be able to continue developing his / her educational and skill base. The children will be encouraged to stay at SathSath until such time as they are able to independently manage a sustainable livelihood, no longer based on the street.
Through their involvement in this project, the children will have been withdrawn from the street. As well as this, we anticipate that the exhibition and the children’s involvement in Street and Theatre Drama will promote a positive understanding of street children to mainstream society, thus contributing to reducing the negative stigma experienced by this marginalized group.
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