By Aman Chhabra | Project Leader
Dear Donor,
Breakthrough’s Adolescent Empowerment Programme (AEP) in Block Tekari of Gaya district, Bihar is largely modelled to promote sexual and reproductive health rights of women and girls and gender equitable norms from the early stages of life over.
We focused on conducting our baseline evaluation to gather necessary insights that guided our programme implementation. Our key accomplishments during this reporting period were:
Identification of GPs and Schools: One of the key outcome of the current grant is to increase understanding of rights, Gender based Violence (GBV) and safe spaces among 11-14 years of adolescents through school based project under Breakthrough’s Adolescent Empowerment Project. As an initial action to move towards the desired outcomes the 5 Gram Panchayats (GPs) and 10 schools have been identified in coordination with district team. All 5 GPs are new intervention field for Breakthrough. Which means program team had to start the work in the new GPs from zero in schools and communities’ stakeholders in these GPs. After that the program team visited all the schools in 5 GPs and oriented the school teachers & principals about the project. The objective of this exercise was to collect information about schools, students, build rapport with school administrations and get their consent to conduct school based Taron Ki Toli program with 11-14 yrs in schools. Based on above information 10 schools were selected in intervention GPs. All the school administrations have given their assurance to support the school based interventions in their respective schools. The school based interventions in the selected schools will commence in next quarter. Meanwhile the district team has been meeting with block/district level line departments in Gaya district for implementing school based curriculum in 10 schools. They have assured their support and cooperation for the project.
Formation of Community Based Kishori Mandals (15-18yr): In order to increased awareness leading to improved access to health services of young people in the intervention GPs the district team has formed 14 Kishori Mandals consist of 411 members. During the reporting period the district team visited all the Aganwadi Centres in intervention GPs to find out the status of adolescents in their respective areas. With the support of aganwadi workers and other key stakeholders of the community they initiated the Kishori Mandal formation process, where these adolescent girls were oriented about the project. The district team has completed chapter 1 (Health and Nutrition) with 55 adolescent girls in groups and chapter 2 (Healthy and Unhealthy) with 20 adolescents in 1 group. At the other hand 58 adolescents from 2 Kishori Mandals participated in the social mapping exercise along the community convergence group members. The adolescents showed great amount of enthusiasm during the social mapping activity. Also the adolescents lead the process along the other community members. Also during the reporting period, the field team sensitised and mobilised 154 adolescents to Village Health Nutrition Day (VHND) in all 10 villages. This initiative helps in creating awareness among the adolescent groups about the services provided at VHNDs. The adolescent girls were able to access the services and also ANM/Asha did an awareness session with these adolescents.
Baseline Survey in Selected GPs:As the block and all 5 GPs are new intervention field for Breakthrough. Hence after the selection of GPs and schools it was essentially important for the project team to understand the current status of the indicators in selected intervention GPs. The program team felt it is important for us to undertake a baseline study in all 5 GPs. Hence in coordination with internal monitoring and evaluation team the implementation team developed baseline tools. After finalisation of tool an orientation session was organised for the project team followed by field testing of the baseline tools. As per the plan the project team undertook the baseline survey with identified stakeholders in the intervention GPs, the survey was done with 100 adolescents (50 girls and 50 boys) and 25 other key stakeholders in the selected GPs. Now the baseline findings will help us in working on project implementation design and strategy for the remaining project period.
Mobilising Adolescents to Village Health & Nutrition Day (VHND): During the baseline survey only 4% respondents (adolescent girls) reported that they have participated in VHND/ADH. Which means 96% of the adolescents’ population in the target communities is either not aware about the VHND/ADH or do not know what are the services provided at VHND/ADH for adolescent girls. Also there is a myth that services provided at VHNDs are only for pregnant women and children below 5yrears. One of the desired outcome for older adolescent girls in the first year of the project is that they will have reduced inhibitions on accessing health information and services (nutrition/ menstrual hygiene). In order to address the misconceptions and lack of awareness among the older adolescents age group the project team started sensitising them on local VHND centres and services provided there for older adolescents. But sensitisation was not enough initially team had to mobilise them to local VHND centres to access the services. Altogether project team mobilised 185 people to VHNDs, which consist of 154 adolescents, 20 youth group members and 11 people from the local communities. The adolescent girls were given TT injections and IFA tablets, after that ANM/Asha conducted an awareness session with them on health.
Identification of Convergence Group Members and Formation: In order to build the ownership of the community on the issues Breakthrough engages with different stakeholders ranging from adolescent girls and boys to ASHAs, Aanganwadis and PRI members, in separate groups. As per our experience working towards transforming social norms in the communities our one has to work with adolescents and community stakeholders (gatekeepers) both simultaneously. We are focusing on improving community ownership on the issue. Convergence meetings will bring together all community level stakeholders (PRIs, AWWs, Sahiya, Asha, Men Group, SHGs, etc.) to take the ownership of the issue and take action. As per the design in convergence meetings project stakeholders identifies key action points they will take to address the issue in their respective revenue village.
This year as part of the strategy the first touchpoint of the community convergence group meeting was done through organizing social mapping exercise at the revenue village level in coordination of community stakeholders and kishori mandals. During the reporting period 2 social mapping exercises were undertaken in 2 revenue villages by project team. Altogether 179 people participated in the social mapping activities. The project team invited & mobilize the community stakeholders & adolescents to a centrally located venue in the revenue village for the social mapping activity. The district team and community people together created the map of the village marking all streets, roads, resources, houses, school, AWC, VHND, etc in the village. once the map was completed the adolescent girls & boys helped in marking houses where adolescent girls are there. It also creates a social picture of the village such as where SC/ST, upper caste population lives and where are the resources available in the village (these resources are in area of SC/ST population or upper caste area). These social maps will help in working on the strategy and action plan for all these convergence groups in future.
Strengthening Liaising with Line Departments in District: The officials from district/block level line departments have shown positive response and given assurance to support the program. As we need cooperation and support of these line departments in effective implementation of project and achieving the promised outcomes. The following key government officials were met by district coordinator during the reporting period:
The regular meetings helped us in rapport building with and all the above government officials have assured us for their full cooperation and support during implementation of project. Based on the discussion with the DEO the project team prepared a complete plan for school based intervention in the selected schools and submitted with a covering letter in the district education office. The DEO and Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) officer asked the district team to participate in School Management Committee (SMC) meetings on regular basis. The Medical Officer In-charge (MOIC) was excited to know about the program and he said that he would like to participate in our program, also asked us to support their health program (such as VHND, etc.) by sensitizing community and adolescents to participate in them. The district team is in regular contact with them and updating them about the field interventions.
Training of Trainers (ToT) of BT Trainers: The adolescents are in the centre of Adolescent Empowerment Program Design and all interventions are aimed to improve understanding of their rights and enhanced agency to make informed decisions related to education, health and life-choices like pushing back the age of marriage. In regard to achieve the gaol we engage with adolescents through Taron Ki Toli (TKT) curriculum with both age groups (11-14yrs as Ujjwal Tara and 15-18yrs as Roshan Tara groups). Hence TkT becomes an integral part of our programs and to ensure the quality a training of trainers was organized in month of June for all the district team members. The ToT covered first 6 chapters of TkT curriculum. But during the ToT it was found that person who was hired for the field related work was not suitable for conducting training with adolescents and the training team asked us to replace him.
We can't thank YOU enough for your support, please feel free to write to us if you have any query or need any specific information.
Thanks and Regards,
Aman Chhabra.
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