Dear Milaan Champions,
Dear Milaan Supporters,
This month, as the new school year starts in Uttar Pradesh, India, we're excited about a lot of growth in our program. The team is happy to welcome Mr. Vikas Sharma as a Program Manager for the Milaan Outreach Program.
This July, Vikas has already approached 25 government schools in the district of Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh. The Outreach team is in the process of selecting 50 Fellows for the entire district. Each fellow will oversee the growth of the government school that they are based in and will be selected out of a competative 70 applicants from rural Uttar Pradesh.
We'd love to hear from you! Please follow our work on Twitter @SupportMilaan and on Facebook! Please don't hesitate to reach out on more of what you'd like to see from the Milaan team.
We can't wait to share more on our experiances working in government schools!
Since our last update, Milaan has been working with students on activating their peer groups and communities surrounding key issues. This Holi, students at a KGBV (Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya), a government school for marginalized girls, in Balrampur, Uttar Pradesh, presented a play on the importance of girls in society.
The play was led by a Milaan Girl Icon Fellow and performed in front of the entire school. The smiling faces that cheered the play on represent students challenged by circumstances and societal attitudes, many with dreams to change their community themselves.
Girls from rural backgrounds, like many of these students, face daunting barriers in completing their education. Only 1 in 100 girls complete 12th grade in rural India according to Dasra.
Later, the Milaan Team visited the surrounding village of another student, at her request, and spoke with her family on allowing all the girls in the family to attend school.
It’s students like this who Milaan believes can create a real and lasting shift in societal views surrounding educating girls. We’re looking forward to continuing to work with these changemakers – with your help!
We’d love to stay in touch, so please reach out regarding our work and the wonderful changemakers we work with!