Engage&Empower girls & boys for Girl Effect-India

Greetings from IDEA Foundation!!

The National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, 2015 envisions skill development as a vehicle for women’s empowerment.  In a country like India, where female workforce participation rate is very less (it is only half of the male participation rate) mainly because of lack of education of girls, it becomes essential for women to be skilled to increase their chance for employment. When the majority of the workforce here is in the informal sector, employability of women will certainly increase if we can train women without formal education to be skilled in these fields, which do not require any academic qualifications.  

Keeping this in mind, IDEA foundation is reaching out to underprivileged communities, and imparting skills to women through various vocational training programs. Here most women are without education and are vulnerable with little bargaining power. They are exploited and have to manage with the minimum wages and no holidays. Some women are really talented and are ready to work hard to achieve their dreams, but they often are discouraged as they do not get any support. It is often a challenge to convince them about the scope of our vocational training programs but our field workers organize awareness programs and arrange resource persons from different fields to talk to them about different opportunities.

 IDEA does a proper research to understand the current requirements and also our field workers work closely with the communities to understand their difficulties. Most of these women are loaded with family obligations.  Our courses are conducted in flexible timings so that women can attend it in their free time without disturbing their current customs and responsibilities.

Case Study 1: - Aasma is a 25-year-old Muslim woman, coming from a very orthodox family. In her community women are supposed to stay at home and cover their face with a burka. Education of girls is not at all considered a necessity. So they are not expected to work or become financially independent. Though they have talents they are not able to work and earn a living. Through mobilization work, we are able to reach out to such families and convince them to send their women for our vocational training classes. Aasma was so excited to know about IDEA vocational training for women as she always wanted to come out of these limitations her community forced on her. She could also convince her family about her interest to join tailoring class.

Aasma completed her basic tailoring work and found out that she really has great talent in stitching, which motivated her to complete advanced tailoring class too.She completed that also successfully and attended sessions on Life skills and underwent EDP training. These exposures molded her into a great entrepreneur. She runs her own tailoring shop which is very famous in her area. Her husband who works as a security guard is so proud to give her all his support in running this shop.

For Aasma, she never thought she could ever work and earn anything but now people from nearby places come in search of her tailoring shop. She is making more money than many educated people.

 Case Study 2: -Arya is a 28-year-old woman, married and has 2 small kids, her husband is working as a driver. After the birth of their children, they were finding it really difficult to manage only with his income. Every day was a struggle for them as children were also falling sick often.

 Arya was tired and disappointed about life, she wanted to work and support the family, but without an education, she didn't know whom to approach.  She was also facing health issues as she was constantly under stress. 

 When she heard about IDEA classes, she joined tailoring and fashion designing course. She got a chance to attend a communication skill workshop and anemia awareness program organized by IDEA for its beneficiaries. In anemia awareness program, she understood that she is anemic. She also learned about the importance of health and nutrients and started to follow good diet plans for the family. She was so happy to tell us that the children are not falling sick now and she is also maintaining good health. After completing basic and advanced courses in tailoring successfully, she has joined men's wear stitching classes now. She feels so good about herself and is very confident about her abilities to start tailoring as her profession now.

IDEA vocational training programs are for such women who are ready to work hard and make a difference in their lives.

Thank you for supporting us so far. We are also starting new courses like driving and nursing for women as the demand for skilled women in these fields is very high now. We are so glad to inform you that our beneficiaries start earning as soon as they complete their course. 

Please continue to support us. Together we are making a huge difference in many lives.