By CREA | It's My Body Programme Team
8 March, International Women’s Day was celebrated with great gusto by CREA and its partner organizations in the states of Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh (U.P.), India. 24 large-scale public events were organized by our partner organizations at the village, block and district level that enabled adolescent and young girls to raise issues of their safety, mobility, education, girls and sports, gender-based discrimination, health needs as well as leadership roles played by girls and women. Football matches, cycle races and other activities like debates, quizes, theatre, music etc. were created, performed and led by the adolescent girls participating in the program. Families of girls participating in the program, government officials, community leaders, health service providers and other community members attended these events. These events were also covered in the local media and were received well by the community members. Approximately 2500 people attended these 24 community-based large-scale events.
In April, CREA, along with six of its partner organizations in Bihar and U.P, organized Leadership Development Camps for a select cohort of 60 girl leaders. These camps were designed and co-facilitated by Dream a Dream, Bangalore. CREA and these partner organizations worked directly with 750 adolescent girls in 2014- 2015 through a ten-month long curriculum on Gender, Sexuality, SRH, Life Skills and Human Rights through Sports. 60 girl leaders were selected from this group of 750 adolescent girls in U.P and Bihar based on their regularity of attendance, participation, initiative taken, support from families and interest in other program activities. The camps are organized as an extension to the curriculum based training to further strengthen leadership skills and capacities of the selected cohort. Different art forms and games were used during the camp to provide space to the girls to have fun and take them on a journey of self-reflection, reinstate the belief of adolescent girls of their abilities and provide them with a space to think about their future. The camp was successful in its approach and a transformation was observed in the participating adolescent girls. Girls who were quiet and shy opened up and took on leadership roles by the end of the camp. During the camp some of the girls shared their personal stories of struggle and ways in which they negotiated on issues related to their education, relationships and delay of marriage with their family and other community members. Towards the end of the camps the girls demonstrated increased in confidence and a vision for future.
As part of these camps, girl leaders are also encouraged to identify issues that concern them and find solutions to them in their communities. Some of the issues identified by the girls were –access to public grounds, better health services for them like iron tablets, sanitary napkins, HB testing, sanitation in schools etc. The girls in U.P further organized meetings in their communities with local Health Service Providers and Elected Women Representatives to share their problems and issues. These meetings have been instrumental in bridging the gap between adolescent girls and community service providers and leaders.
In our last update posted in the month of March, we mentioned the Sports Camps that were organized across 9 districts in the states of Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh. Sports is a core component of the It’s My Body program and is used to train adolescent girls on issues related to Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR). Organizing sports camps in the community made a huge impact on the girls. The camps were useful in building football skills for the girls, increasing the visibility and credibility of the program at the community level and in strengthening the confidence of adolescent girls to participate in a sport which his traditionally associated with boys. BBC Hindi recently covered this component (girls playing football) of the program and explored its linkage with improved negotiation abilities of the girls to delay early marriage.
Here is the link to the BBC Hindi article wherein the It’s My Body program was covered at one of CREA’s partner organization, Gaurav Grameen Mahila Vikas Manch (Bihar):
CREA along with its partner organizations is currently working directly with the second batch of 2000 adolescent girls in the three states of U.P, Bihar and Jharkhand in the ongoing It’s My Body, program. As part of the program, curriculum based training sessions through football with girls, school events, meetings with families of the girls participating in the program and meetings with local health service providers are being conducted.
By CREA | IMB Team
By CREA | IMB Programme Team
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