Spreading Awareness on Child Sexual Abuse: ’Tis the Need of the Hour 

The project aims at mitigating the issue of child sexual abuse by undertaking awareness meetings/gatherings with youth and school children in the work areas of AWAG in rural and urban areas of Gujarat. 

However, with the schools being closed due to Covid-19 lockdown the meetings were conducted with community children.

Thus, awareness building on the issue of Child Sexual Abuse was addressed through meetings whereby children were enlightened on the issue of ‘Safe Touch and Unsafe Touch’ through the story of ‘Komal’ developed by CHILDLINE.   

A total of nine such meetings that covered 96 children from AWAG's work area in Ahmedabad Gujarat, were undertaken in small groups of 10-12 participants with strict adherence to government norms of social distancing, sanitation and wearing of face masks related to Covid.

The details of the meetings undertaken are outlined below: 

• Malek Saban dargah -10 children
• Morarji Chowk (Batch 1) = 10 children
• Morarji Chowk (Batch 2) = 10 children
• Gujarat Housing Board Bapunagar (Batch 1) = 11 children
• Gujarat Housing Board Bapunagar (Batch 2) = 9 children
• Vrundavan Flats, Bapunagar = 11 children
• Garib Nagar, Bapunagar = 11 children
• Bapunagar = 12 children
• Rangvali Chali = 12 children 

THANK YOU!! 

‘Use of Mental Health Counselling as Adolescents become Adults’

Adolescence is a critical period for mental, social and emotional wellbeing and development.

Adolescents are the greatest resource for a society to thrive.

As adolescents become adults mental health counselling is imperative to equip then with better coping skills.

Seema (name changed to conceal identity) is a 20 year old woman with an 8 month old baby. She came to AWAG’s counselling centre and expressed that she faced a lot of harassment from her husband and in-laws. Having lost her parents at the age of 2 years she had nobody to vent her feelings. Throughout her initial visit, she appeared to be tensed and fearful. She voiced that she was experiencing the following symptoms:

1. Constant churning of thoughts
2. Tension
3. Prone to crying easily
4. Feeling frightened
5. Feeling of a wasted life
6. Headache
7. Loss of appetite

The counsellee went through periodic counselling sessions at AWAG. Over a period of time, Seema felt more comfortable and composed to move forward in life.

THANK YOU!

PROGRESS REPORT                              

As part of building capacities of adolescent girls at the community level, AWAG organised meetings for them at Ahmedabad.

A total of 75 adolescent girls actively participated in the meetings that focused on:

• 'Safe Touch-Unsafe Touch’ and mechanisms to fight the social evil of sexual abuse.
• Self worth and identity
• Recognizing their inner potential
• Building their understanding and developing their life-skills to move towards social and economic empowerment.

Through discussions and games, the participants gained insights on the above topics. These meetings were undertaken in small groups of 10-12 participants with strict adherence to government norms of social distancing, sanitation and wearing of face masks related to Covid-19.

 THANK YOU FOR YOUR CONTINUED SUPPORT!

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http://www.awagindia.org/ and https://www.facebook.com/awagindia/