Abstract
This paper describes the difficult relationships among those implementing an action research project with children in a low-income settlement in Bangalore (India), the distant and unresponsive bureaucracy of an international funding agency, and the authoritarian management of the NGO through whom its money was channelled. This case study highlights the difficulties that international agencies face in operationalizing the principles of grassroots participation that they officially endorse. The action research was one of several projects within the Growing up in Cities programme. It shows the difficult circumstances under which so many young people live, including six and seven-year-olds thrust into adult roles and lives cut short by disease and violence. But it also shows their astonishing resilience and energy, self-reliance and optimism. External agencies, from local governments and NGOs to international funders, need to work with children to understand what does (and what does not) work for them. This means recognizing that they are important actors in their own communities and that their insights, energy and creativity should be fostered and supported rather than ignored.