Give GIRLS in India a CHANCE at life

Dear Donor,

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

Mentioning below some of the key highlights of our work between Aug and Nov 22.

Adolescent Empowerment by Kishor-Kishori Mela in Haryana

The dreams and aspirations of thousands of girls took a backseat after their families’ income levels dropped amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Many of them may not return to classes again. During Covid-19 pandemic, we have seen an increase in school drop out of girls as a result of prolonged school closure and lack of girls’ access to digital devices in Haryana state. We foresee a stark rise in the gender gap on school education, as we see boys coming back to school, but girls being left behind. In order to generate awareness on adolescent girl’s education in the community so they will come back to school and develop an extended future orientation among them, Breakthrough India organised Kishor-Kishori Mela (Adolescents Fair) - Badi Si Asha, in 125 schools of 6 districts (Karnal, Panipat, Sonipat, Rohtak, Jhajjar and Gurugram) of Haryana state with students/adolescents, their parents and communities across 125 gram panchayats in the month of August 2022.

One of the objective of this Mela (fair) was to generate awareness on early marriage, value of girls’ education and aspiration of girls through street play and engage parents in this discussion. To support adolescents’ aspiration, we also planned to play theatre in the community. The play talks about the dreams and aspirations of girls “Sapno Ki Duniya of Sarla and Muniya”.

With the support of Kishor-Kishori Mela Theatre team, we have been able to reach out to more than 45,000 people in the school and community of different district of Haryana where youth, adolescents, parents, teachers, principals and many other stakeholders started taking interest on Girls education and showing interest on their aspiration. We have also tried to approach some of the officials to inaugurate and participates in the Mela where they inspired many of adolescents with their life journey.

Capacity Building of Anganwadi (Courtyard Shelter) Workers

With the collaboration and support of WCD department, Breakthrough team organized Capacity Building Workshops for Anganwadi workers and supervisors of Jhajjar, Gurgaon and Sonipat districts in Haryana. We have been reached out to 191 Anganwadi Workers, Supervisors in 59 villages of Jhajjar, Guragon and Sonipat districts in Haryana. The main objective of the training was how we can identify our issue and problem and initiate change on our own. Along with this, we should support adolescents in making their dreams come true.

These workers are one of the key stakeholder within the community, who also deal with issues related to violence and harassment in their lives and in community, many women and girls reach out to them for interim relief, and discuss their problems with them. They were highly motivated after receiving the training. The training sessions were done by showcasing videos and interactive discussions. The sessions were highly interactive and great participation was seen by all the Anganwadi workers and Supervisors. They liked our different engaging creative methods of training like games, activities, videos and discussions.

Teachers Training on Child Safeguarding and Good School Indicators

After successfully organizing Teachers training program (ensuring Child Safeguarding implementation in school under Good School Indicators) in Karnal and Jhajjar district of Haryana, we replicated the same in Panipat, Sonipat, Rohtak and Gurgaon districts. This was done with an intention to institutionalize the concept of Child Safeguarding Policy in the government schools of Haryana.

With the collaboration of Education department, we were able to cover all 4 districts (Rohtak, Sonipat, Panipat and Gurgaon) through Teacher’s Training Program. Training was intended to cover various agendas which were- Introducing Good School Indicators, Violence Free Schools, No Physical harm to anyone and No Gender Based Discrimination. We initiated this by Integrating Child Safeguarding in education system to create a safer school environment for children to learn and grow without fear of abuse and discrimination. During the training, participants were briefed about the difference between Child Safeguarding and Child Protection and why it's important to implement in schools. We made everyone aware of adolescent girl empowerment program and how good schools should be and what are their functions.

93 Principals and teachers of 45 Government schools participated in the training and understood the concept and significance of Child Safeguarding in schools. Few suggestions related to Students Council creation, suggestions box installation, imparting activities in the morning school assembly and addition of CSP in existing school curriculum were also shared by the participants. At the end of training, every participant shared their feedback related to training and felt very positive about the implementation of the Child Safeguarding Policy. 

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

Wish you a Very Happy New Year in Advance !!

With Hope and Gratitude,

Aman Chhabra.