Engage&Empower girls & boys for Girl Effect-India

Dear Donors,

Greetings from India! 

The Indian state Maharashtra continues to report the highest number of Corona virus infections in the country in this second wave. But we are looking forward to a better tomorrow. Governement , NGOs and health workers are trying their best to control the spread of COVID, let us hope for the best.

IDEA’s involvement in Women & Child  development through activities focussed on education and skill development is continuing to huge transformation in 35 communities in and around Pune. Time and again we have modified our approaches and method of implementation as the situations demand, usually adding up more responsibilities on our shoulder to ensure the expected outcome is reached.

We faced many challenges while implementing educational support programs in marginalised communities, so far. But a crisis like this was never anticipated or planned for. In times like this to sustain the programs we need support from within the community where we work. But thankfully, with so many years of continuous and sincere efforts, the community people trust our initiatives and they themselves come out with a helping hand. When we thought of starting a library for our sponsored students in a community, a resident immediately offered space in his stationary shop for free, as he has seen the benefits of our programs in his community children.

Our study centres and youth clubs are closed now due to the pandemic. We do not know when we can restart our programs. But you will be glad to hear about one of our young girls who could face this challenge boldly and come out with solutions which refreshed all of us.

 IDEA has formed youth clubs in different communities for children under our sponsorship. Hema is one of the high school students under our IDEA sponsorship program. Though initially a very shy girl, Hema could participate in the youth club activities held in her area and develop herself. She attended all the programs under the youth club and that helped herself come out of the personal limitations that the society had forced upon her. She learned to speak up and express her ideas through our communication skill training sessions. Youth club is equipped with a PC with all the software needed and with internet connection which our students can access any time they need, and during lock down Hema made use of this and educated herself. Not only that, when our staff could not reach the centre, she took the responsibility of the centre and helped other students who needed to use the centre.  As our primary students who were attending study centres did not have anyone to teach them, Hema along with her sister took the responsibility to teach them, following all the COVID protocols. We were amazed to see the leadership abilities of Hema , developed and expressed so thoroughly in such a short time. Truly we can say ‘Necessity is the mother of creation’ and we are glad that we could be of some help. When there are students like Hema, we do not have to worry about the sustainability of our initiatives in adverse conditions like these. Or consider taking a hit on our vision to make the World a better place.  “The personality development programs organised by IDEA Foundation helped me to be self confident to take actions when necessary. Though many schools started their programs online, smaller children from my community did not have a smart phone, even if some families have one common phone, they could not recharge it on time, so I decided to teach them, taking 3 or 4 students at a time in front of the centre keeping physical distance. I am glad that I could of some help to the community. ” says Hema.

Thank you very much for trusting us so far and supporting us in our efforts to make a positive impact in our low resource communitis. Please continue to support us we face more challnges now to continue our programs in these critical times.