How Should it Be? Children’s story book

Through the Expanding IMPACT and REACT projects, we hoped to further explore and challenge normative values around gender and promote gender equality through children’s books for migrant children aged 3 to 6 years old. The project team and Help Without Frontiers (HWF) invited Ray of Youths, a group of 19 (7 male, 12 female) local migrant youth from Myanmar aged between 15 and 19 to discuss gender norms in migrant communities and how to positively transform them. The youth have developed four gender transformative books, which challenge gender norms, and gender discrimination in migrant communities. A gender transformative children’s book is one that attempts to re-define and challenge gender roles and relations of women and men, boys and girls, including harmful stereotypes. Transforming unequal gender relations to promote shared power, control of resources, decision-making, and support for women’s empowerment. Books can either reinforce existing traditions and social norms, or they can provide an alternative view of the world and broaden thinking.