Every 4th girl is a child bride. Help change this

Dear Donor, 

Hope you and your loved ones are safe and healthy!!

Mentioning below some of the key highlights of our work between Mar and June 23.

Breakthrough does this through the Taaron Ki Toli (Legion of Stars) intervention with 11 to 18 years’ adolescents. Taaron Ki Toli (Legion of Stars) Breakthrough core intervention Taaron Ki Toli is bringing a shift in the gender attitudes among the adolescents and instilling awareness and confidence to question and defy discriminatory norms and make informed decisions about marriage, pursue higher education and careers.

During the reporting period we reached out to 20482 new Ujjwal Taras (11-14 years’ cohort) and 9473 new Roshan Taras (15-18 years cohort) in 12 blocks, 536 schools and 441 villages of UP and 5 blocks, 76 schools and 88 villages of Jharkhand. The new cohorts were taken through the first chapter of Taaron Ki Toli curriculum. The adolescents got to know each other, understand the benefits of being in a Taaron Ki Toli club, and give their consent to be part of the Taaron Ki Toli programme. Students were introduced to and taken through the concept of consent. The facilitator explained the programme to the students, the expected outcomes of the programme and the skills that students would acquire as the sessions progress. The facilitators clarified their role too and sought the consent of the participants to be a part of Taaron Ki Toli. This helped students to understand that their consent and opinions are valued and instilled in them a sense of belonging to the Taaron Ki Toli club.

Theatre of Oppressed in Jharkhand-Unfolding Wings towards Dreams

“I want to join the army. This is my dream. I appeal to my family to support me in pursuing this dream. Many restrictions are placed on girls in my community. Why are only boys encouraged? Girls are made to do only sewing and cooking and other traditional work. As shown in the theatre, girls can also do all types of work –even non-traditional work like joining the army or police force. I request my parents from this platform to support me in fulfilling my dream”

                -Shabnam, (name changed) an adolescent girl from Pasai village in Hazaribagh, Jharkhand

Our Deep Transformation work is giving confidence to girls to negotiate for their dreams and aspirations at home and publicly share about their non-traditional careers and dreams before community. Shabnam is not alone. Several girls came up during theatre of Oppressed shows and spoke about their dreams and aspirations. Such Theatre of Oppressed shows have been held in 30 villages of Hazaibagh disseminating messaging related to education and aspirations of girls and reaching out to 6500 people. Even youth and stakeholders spoke on the need to support the dreams and aspirations of girls. For example, Somesh, a youth from Masratu said, “Parents need to understand and believe that their daughters have ability to fulfill their dreams-they only need opportunity and support. I am a player and many times girls have outdone me in sports. I am encouraging sports among both girls and boys of my village.”

Kishori Melas in UP- “Sapne Sahi, Shadi Nahi” (Talk about our dreams not marriage)

Kishori Melas in UP- “Sapne Sahi, Shadi Nahi” (Talk about our dreams not marriage) were organized from 1st April 2019 to 31st March 2020. 19 cases of early marriage being planned by families were identified and stopped by Breakthrough team of Gorakhpur. As a result of continuous messaging and deep transformation work, this year our Community Developers have not reported or come across a single case of early marriage from our intervention communities in Gorakhpur as well as Lucknow. To keep up this achievement, this year again a signature campaign against early marriage was undertaken during Kishori Melas held in April 2023. Parents, stakeholders, youth and adolescents participated in this signature drive and vowed to never support or encourage early marriage.

This achievement related to early marriage has been made possible by our efforts to promote the aspirations of adolescents. ‘Shadi Nahi to Kya?’ (What else if not marriage?) used to be the common question by parents and community. But the buildup on aspirations has helped girls negotiate against early marriage. Our stakeholders have also used Kishori Melas as a platform to promote the education and aspirations of adolescents. For example, during the Kishori Mela in Lucknow this month, the Pradhan of Samesi, gifted bicycles to adolescents who had passed class 10 and 12 with highest marks. Kishori melas were held in April in 118 schools of Lucknow and Gorakhpur reaching out to 9585 people.

Menstrual Hygiene Day Celebrated in UP & Jharkhand Intervention Areas

When our TCL Manju (name changed) went to her coaching, she noticed that a girl had her first period. Her dress got stained. While other fellow students were laughing, Manju gave sanitary pad to the girl and made her aware about Menstrual hygiene management. She also spread awareness to others on the issue through a poster. Manju and girls like her have been taking such initiatives due to the awareness on menstruation spread under Adolescent Empowerment programme of Breakthrough.

It is unfortunate that due to a normal bodily function women and girls still face deprivation and discrimination in education, career & livelihood and even participating equally in day to day life. Girls continue to be deprived and stigmatized because of menstruation. Adolescents, youth and women of our deep transformation areas got together to celebrate Menstrual Hygiene Day so that menstruation becomes a normal fact of life and the stigma and silence around it gets broken leading to greater awareness on girls’ need to be provided proper toilet and menstrual hygiene facilities in schools and families.

The girls and women painted their palms red and wore red dots and clothes, had group discussions on MHM, organized rallies, made posters, painted their faces and balloons, spread messaging related to menstrual hygiene through audio video messages and wall painting. Such celebrations took place in 82 villages of 12 blocks of the 4 intervention districts of UP in which 1754 people participated. Similar celebrations were held in Jharkhand 25 intervention villages in Hazaribagh involving 745 people.

NOTE: ‘MHM’ stands for Menstrual Hygiene Management. It is a term that refers to the components of managing menstruation with dignity and comfort, such as using clean menstrual materials, having access to water, sanitation and hygiene facilities, and disposing of used materials safely. Breakthrough has been working on information dissemination and attitudinal change regarding MHM.

This all work is happening because of support of DONORS like YOU. We would request you to continue your support and if possible recommend our project to like-minded people.

With Hope and Gratitude,

Aman Chhabra.