Jugaad (Innovation) Lab for Disadvantaged Girls

The month of October brought a much awaited upgrade for the Jugaad lab participants – a total of ten laptops were donated to the lab, enabling the participants to switch from working on desktop systems which were only available on Sundays to laptops which are readily available to them. This change has evidently brought about a great deal of enthusiasm amongst the participants as they continue to utilize the wide range of learning opportunities the internet has to offer, including accessibility to informative YouTube videos pertaining to their curriculum (especially STEM) and the Google Translate tool which helps them is improving their English as well. This technology boost has also enabled us to get into a new partnership with Level Up Village (LUV), a US-based non-profit organization aimed at facilitating collaboration amongst students from around the world who are part of different organization or schools. LUV runs courses at more than 150 public and private schools in the US, the UK and Australia with 30+ Global Partner organizations in more than 20 countries. LUV’s initiative with Jugaad lab involves a close virtual interaction of our participants with students from USA through exchange of video letters.

In the month of December, the lab’s participants explored a whole new area of practical learning by engaging in a carpentry workshop. The workshop was organized within Jugaad lab space itself, during which the girls got a hands-on experience of cutting and measuring wood using carpentry tools, designing simple wood products, which in turn were assembled by the girls themselves.

To mark the end of the year, the lab organized a felicitation program in the last week of December to recognise the year-long learning engagement with the lab’s regular participants. This event reminded the team of the lab’s aims and objectives and it clearly lay out the same for the girls’ parents, who actively engaged in the event which was an exhilarating moment for all of us.

To give stimulus to the FAT’s initiative around STEM education for women, a six-week long online fundraising campaign named #MakeIT2BreakIT was run in December to create awareness about the increasing role of women in STEM and to highlight Jugaad lab’s efforts in creating innovative learning experiences for young girls in STEM. The campaign, which was run through online crowd sourced fundraising platforms, was successful both in terms of its reach and the funds it raised for the Lab. The campaign also helped showcase the day-to-day activities and experiences of Jugaad lab’s participants on social media platforms.

In December, the lab’s participants completed a full year of their engagement with Jugaad Lab. This batch of participants was promoted to Level – 2 in January 2016. A new batch of participants will be enrolled in April 2017 at Level-1 of the program.

Given the number of engagements and workshops which are held at Jugaad lab and the gradual expansion in its operations,  it seemed judicious to develop a monitoring and evaluation system which was formulated in order to review the year long activities, which in turn, would act as a reference guide for us in overcoming similar challenges in the future. To this end, a consultant was hired to undertake detailed monitoring and evaluation of the program by reviewing documents of the program’s operations. The consultant also interviewed the different stakeholders involved in this program including certain parents and school teachers of the participants. This process also helped in identifying certain gaps which we need to bridge to make the program more effective for the participants. The evaluation program also acted as a catalyst for our team members, helping them ideate new and effective ways of implementing ‘Jugaad’ lab’s objectives.

This review process is also being used as a blueprint to create a comprehensive evaluation strategy for 2017 which will cover the growth of both Level -1 and Level -2 participants.

Key findings of the evaluation process include the following:

• Non-formal, practical methods of teaching have aroused the interest of these young girls in the fields of Maths and Science – areas which have been treated with much apprehension previously.
• Needs-based attention given to each young girl has helped nurture their unique capabilities and talents.
• A safe and friendly environment has been successfully created as part of the Jugaad lab initiative, which in turn is conducive to the girls’ learning experiences.

We would like to thank all our donors for your support in completing one successful year of the Jugaad Lab. As we embark on the second year of this pilot project, we will post a new project to raise funds for new activities in the lab. We hope you will continue to support us.