WEBVTT
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I am Anna Kersting and
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I am the director and producer
of the movie film "Power to the Children”.
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A documentary about children's
parliaments in India.
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And in 2012, I discovered the
topic during a research period
on child labor.
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Someone in Chennay told
me that there is a congress
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where children come together
from their different cities
and villages,
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as delegates of children's
parliaments.
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And these children come
together for several days
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and talk all day about politics,
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about child marriage,
environmental issues,
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child labour
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and search for solutions
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and plan campaigns.
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And then I went to the villages
and saw what they were
changing.
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Then it became clear to me
that I will make a film about
children's parliaments.
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Only afterwards I did really
understood
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that what the children
are doing is sociocracy,
lived sociocracy.
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So the children vote sociocratically.
That means,
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they choose someone exactly.
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Everyone has to introduce
themselves, in this parliament
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and everyone has to say
what position he wants.
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If someone wants to be
minister of education,
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then he says: "I want, I make myself
available as Minister of Education."
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Then others question
them: "What is your contribution?"
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"How did you want to do this?
Do you even have the abilities?"
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Next everyone is questioned
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whether they have
the abilities at all
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and they are questioned
more detailed about what
they want to change and
how they want to do it.
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Everything is
completely open,
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no one can just
come and say
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"I want to become minister of
education." And everyone
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is asked to say yes or no,
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but they have to
elaborate on their reasons.
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I thought that
in these elections it is great
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when they elect their
children's parliaments,
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that everything is disclosed.
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It is also taken into
account, how the last
legislative period was like,
so to speak.
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If someone was not that
successful as a minister and
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has not changed so
many things, then they will
not be re-elected so quickly.
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So they take a very close look.
I think that is important.
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Well, we don't know
any children's parliaments
as they exist in India.
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This is important for now.
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And with these parliaments,
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the first thing that is
important is that everything
should be made public.
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So when they
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nominate their ministers,
everyone has to
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justify why they want to
become minister and
what they want to change.
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And how they
will achieve that.
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This means he has to
explain himself in front
of others.
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And
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the elections
are partly public.
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So one publicly speaks
for or against someone.
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That’s something we don't know
at all here, this process usually
happens in private.
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This is very
important and
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what else is important regarding
the children's parliaments?
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I think it's very important,
how they gather, these meetings,
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that they take place with
such mutual respect.
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They let each other
finish their sentences.
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That’s wonderful.
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The children are children
as soon as they are out
on the street playing
with each other.
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They fight with each
other and everything.
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But the moment they sit
in the children's parliament,
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they are so in their roles
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and they take it so seriously.
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The communication between
each other is wonderful,
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they respect each other,
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everyone gets a chance to speak
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and there is simply a
very special atmosphere.
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Yes, of course
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there are
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organisations
behind all this
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which of course teach
this concept to the children.
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They are mostly local NGOs,
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which either advocate for
human rights or for the
environment
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and start with the children
to inform the children about
their rights,
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because the children
in India don't know at
all that they have rights.
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And that's why the
children are really
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encouraged to take
a closer look
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at what their rights are
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and how democracy works.
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And once they
have understood this,
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then they do their own work.
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And carry out their
parliaments independently.
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Yes, but they work
quite differently.
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So for now the model
as it is in India does
not even exist.
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That’s new. And I think
we can learn something
from them.
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There is no model
here where children have
so much co-determination
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and it is not just a
role play what they play
at home in their village.
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but they are really
connected to politics.
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Because even if you become
a minister, a judge comes.
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This is very important
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or another kind of an
important person, but
mostly they are judges.
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They come to swear them in.
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The children then have to
take an oath.
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That's very clever.
Politicians get invited
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who swear them in.
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Through this procedure,
comes acceptance for
children's parliaments.
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And power.
That's important
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to get the power
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and do not only play
children's games there.
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Because this
changes society
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and you see that in these
children's parliaments
what they have changed.
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They have restructured
whole villages.
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Villages where there
was no water before,
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no electricity etc.,
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no rubbish collection.
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The children took
care and made it happen.
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And that's why the adults
think what the children do
is so great.
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Because the adults
did not manage to do it,
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but the children did.
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Maybe not yet.
But this can happen.
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We don't know
the model at all.
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I myself was
surprised by it.
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We don't know it. It's completely new
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and I'm curious
now how our
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teachers and schools
will react when they
hear that it's possible, isn't it?
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And also our politicians.
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So I have been on
the road with it for a
year now
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and we have wonderful
discussions about it
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and there is
also a lot of interest
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from communities that
are interested in building
such childrens’ parliaments.
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Very positive.
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From the children
and the adults.
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Children are totally
into this film
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because they
see what is possible
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and there are always
discussions afterwards with
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„Would that be possible
here as well?"
It always boils down to that.
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At the end of the film:
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„Can we also imagine this?“
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And these discussions
are exciting,
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because the children
want more participation,
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Much more.
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And amazingly enough,
teachers like that.
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We have fantastic teachers,
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I didn't know that.
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They were all in favor of
more child participation.
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Even head teachers
think it's great.
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So if everything they
say is true,
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then there is a lot of
potential for change here
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and children will have more
opportunities to participate soon.
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They need more opportunities
for co-determination.
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They simply have to be
allowed to make their own
decisions, right from the start.
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They should be allowed
to have a say in decisions
about the timetable.
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Yes, that is very important.
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And about which
teachers are hired
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and which are not.
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You can see that
in free schools where participation
is already lived
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that it works
fantastically
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if students have the right
to have a say from the
beginning.
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Yes and what would
be my vision.
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Of course,
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I think that we could
also create such neighbourhood
parliaments here.
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And thus give children more
opportunities for participation.
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Not only in school,
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but also in private, leisure
time, everything that
concerns them. Of course.
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I think we have to
adapt it, the system.
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Yes, in any case.
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Certainly not one-to-one,
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we have a
completely different
situation here.
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But I think that
the basic idea,
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the willingness should
be there first with politicians.
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to give children the
possibility to co-determine.
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So there is this group
9 is mine,
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which also goes to
the UN in New York.
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In this group it
really happened that
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all children have learned
sign language.
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And I think that's fantastic.
That's what they
taught each other.
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That means they don't
have any problems
of communication at all.
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In one group they all
speak sign language.
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That's also part of it, so
that those who can't
speak can get in, yes.
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So that somehow is
a great example for me
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of how it works.
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One adjusts to those
who have a disability,
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so they are simply taken in
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and if they can't express
themselves so well,
then you try to
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go down to their level
so that they can
understand that.
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It is very loving.
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In the film we have
the situation that
there are some
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dropouts in the village -
that is, the people who
refuse to go to school
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and the children
try to bring them
back to school.
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But they always hide,
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so they don't want to
go back to school at all
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and the children in the children's
parliament themselves were overwhelmed
with the situation,
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but still know what to do.
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They call the Childline
in India
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and they take care
of the children.
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And it actually happened in
the village that Childline
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contacted the parents
and the children
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and made sure
that the children
went back to school.
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So if the children
don't know what to
do, then they know
where they can get help.
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That's important.
You can't expect the children
to solve all the problems themselves.
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They just need to know
who their contact persons
are, who they can approach,
who can then help them further.
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Yes, of course.
Lots of them,
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especially those who are
already organized in the
sociocratic movement now.
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They see the
potential here.
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How this can be applied
very practically.
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And I hope that there
will soon be many pilot
projects of communities
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trying to establish these
children parliaments.
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Not only childrens’ parliaments.
Also neighbourhood parliaments.
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Because it's not just
about children.
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It's about much more
participation from below
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and that means in
neighbourhoods and there
are adults as well.
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So one can make exactly
these parliaments also
for adults.
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So that there is simply more
participation happening.
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I don't know any
in Germany, no.
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But in India there
are thousands.
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And I think from them we
can learn such things to do
it here as well.