Give GIRLS in India a CHANCE at life

Dear Donor,

We are happy to share with you that October- December period was an ideal ending to the year for kids in our project areas, THANKS TO YOU for making it possible. The project activities during this quarter were conducted at different levels, which included Classroom sessions, Teacher’s Training, Community mobilisation and Ratri Choupal.

One of the achievements has been the support we have been receiving from various government departments. The 2 key highlights from our interaction with the government has been: 

• Shri Jag Niwas, District Commissioner, Jhajjar, attended our Ratri Choupal. After attending her shared that the message about building the aspirations of adolescents should reach every household. He also agreed that the administration needs to support Breakthrough in this initiative. They even offered to extend support to us from various departments.
• Mr. Chahat from Chief Minister’s Good Governance Associates (CMGGA) visited our intervention school in Badsahpur to see our Adolescent Empowerment Programme. During his visit, he saw:

o    Balika Manch- where we facilitated a discussion about gender roles and gendered division of work especially household chores through Pinky-Pankaj Story. 

o    Taaron Ki Toli (TkT) session- TKT students shared their experience of attending the session called Our Rights and Kiska Naam Kiska Kaam. Mr. Chahat was impressed to hear stories from the adolescents on how they negotiated with their parents to break gender stereotypes.

After the session CMGGA appreciated our programme and also told the School to support us.  After the visit, CMGGA shared their experience with other Government officials and other CMGGAs. We also got a mail from CMGGA, Jind, to scale-up the programme. He also sent his recommendation to Ms. Indu, DEO, Gurgaon to support the programme. 

Training with Younger Adolescents (Ujjwal Tara -11-14yrs): We are working with boys and girls in this age group through the Taaron ki Toli (TKT) school programme, that shapes gender attitudes and beliefs. This will form the foundation for building egalitarian attitudes and relationships between boys and girls, promote agency, build self-worth and develop their negotiation skills. The following sessions were conducted:

• Ye Kaun Hai (Decoding gender stereotypes): The session uses storytelling as a tool to highlight the critical fact that characteristics, traits, and personalities are not gender-specific. This story about the two frogs brings in different aspects that are socially constructed and understood as gender-specific e.g. sports, games, confrontation, conflict-resolution, leisure, hobbies etc. The story encourages students to explore and analyse the different characteristics people have or roles that they play, and the expectations from society that make these masculine or feminine. The facilitator also enables the students to recognise that they get these messages through the process of socialisation, and so, they can be unlearnt. This encourages students to realise their own potential, and to develop self-confidence. 
• Do Aatmkathayein (Two Autobiographies): This session helps adolescents understand gender disparities with the real examples from their lives. By writing their own stories in groups and sharing that with the entire class, they start understanding the forms of discrimination women and girls face through their entire life cycle. By the end of the session, many students shared that they now understand gender discrimination, barriers and privileges that exists in the society and how important it is to end this discrimination.
• Kiska Kaam Kiska Naam (Who does what job): This session helps adolescents understand gender disparities with the real examples from their lives. By writing their own stories in groups and sharing that with the entire class, they start understanding the forms of discrimination women and girls face through their entire life cycle. During the session, students shared that boys in their families are often just seen as breadwinners and therefore considered as head of the family, while the girls are assigned household chores, which are un-paid in nature and limits them to the periphery of house. This process also helps in peer learning and sharing. 

The classroom sessions provide a safe platform and facilitative environment, where adolescents can participate in decision making on issues affecting their lives. In the long run, by building their knowledge, adolescents will be able to adopt positive practices, access preventive, curative, protective services and enhance their skills and participation within their schools, family and community.

Training with Older Adolescents (Roshan Tara -15-18yrs): We engage with 15-18 year-olds to build their agency, develop their life skills and confidence. 

• Hamare Adhikar (Our rights):In the last reporting period, due to examinations, we could conduct this session only in 16 schools. So, in the first round of the third quarter, we completed it in the remaining schools. This session talks about human rights and helps students understand how to access their rights.
• Kaushal Aur Main (Skill and Me): Through a process of self-reflection, the session helps adolescents identify their skills and aspirations. This can then help them form their career aspirations and identify the resources they need to meet them. They can then negotiate for these rights.
• P-for Planning:In the third round, we facilitated a session named P-for planning. Aim of this chapter is to help students in career planning in connection with their interests, qualities and skills. The students were given an exercise to map what profession they see around them and what factors they need to consider to be in that profession. We discussed different factors of planning and asked them to plan for some profession they see around. This session will also help them in exploring the resources, challenges and backup plans as mitigation of expected challenges at each step to achieve their aim or what they aspire for. 

In all the 6 intervention districts- Sonipat, Panipat, Karnal, Rohtak, Jhajjar and Gurugram, our monthly average reach in schools.

Adolescent reach-11-14 age group-8050

Adolescent reach-15-18 age group-11500

Teachers’ Training:We conducted Teachers’ Trainings and Sensitization Meetings in Gurgram and Jhajjar at the district level. 55 teachers and principals from 40 schools in both the intervention districts to build a conducive environment in schools. This was the first interaction with teachers and principals from Gurugram and Jhajjar. The training gave us an opportunity to discuss with teachers about how they can ensure that the school is a safe space for adolescents - a space free from any form of gender based violence or discrimination. To ensure project sustainability, we engaged with teachers through interactions on gender issues, and good school indicators. Good school indicators give a picture of how effective a school is in addressing the socio-psychological needs of adolescents. Training conducted on district level also helped us:

• Get buy-in by introducing the Adolescent Empowerment Programme and sharing experiences of teachers and principals from old schools.
• Demonstrate our work among the teachers from new schools on gender and life skills
• Pitch the impact on Adolescent Empowerment Programme from the JPAL results and change stories from RCT intervention.
• Showcase our experimental initiative on Good School Indicator which includes-strengthening of SMCs, Schools free from Discriminatory Practices, free from Corporal Punishment. This will help us to get buy-in to formal Students Council in the schools which aimed to build leadership among the adolescents.

Ratri Choupal:Community interventions like Ratri Choupal are a critical part of our intervention as it helps build a conducive environment for girls to thrive by bringing all stakeholders on a common platform.This also addresses issue of aspirations of adolescents’ boys and girls and barriers in the communities which specially limits aspirations of girls. 

 They must be encouraged and supported to study as much as they want, even to build that vision how this is going to contribute in an equal society for all in larger sense.  We have to offer this support to adolescent girls to break barriers in achieving aspiration, which need lots of changes at various level like establishing positive gender norms in community and changes at policy level.

 So this time we conducted our community mobilization campaign-Ratri Choupal using Forum Theatre, asatool to actively engage the audience, so that it helps them understand their role, gives them ideas around how they could act in a particular situation when it comes to gender discrimination with adolescent girls and in supporting their mobility and aspiration.

Our whole day in the community planned to make Ratri Choupal event a big success.  We started from school assembly, mobilised parents and teachers for the evening events, then we did community mobilization by visiting households and mobilizing communities through poster and announcements in the community. During these household visits we abled to build rapport with the communities and personally invited them to the event. We had long discussion on the issue of adolescent girls’ aspiration. We had lunch in the household and g0t to know the essence of community life and this also opened the door for the people, especially women’s in the home, to share their concern and hidden stories of their life and aspiration.

During the forum theatre in the evening, in the middle of the play, audience were asked to recreate the scene- how they wanted it should be like if someone is creating barrier in the education of the adolescents’ girls.  We got huge support from the community and young girls as well as men in the community shared their views and countered the narrative of discrimination with adolescent girls in-terms of limiting their aspiration.

Community Mobilization

Objective: To address the community against violence at home, street and workplace and motivate them to raise their voice against violence and to make the community aware about support services.

10 days long community mobilization was organized from 25^th November to 4^th December 2019 in 3 intervention communities in Faridabad. We reached out more than 7 thousand people through Forum Theatre and discussion on making violence free spaces in all the spheres of women’s life.  There were 25 shows during the entire campaign, in 20 shows, Durga Shakti App team joined us and connect communities about their services.

This all work we have been able to do is because of the support and contribution from donors like YOU.  Let's come together in 2020 also and give a brighter, safer and a happier childhood to these kids.

Please feel free to write to us if you have any query or concern.


Thanks and Regards,

Aman Chhabra.