Providing Life Skills to 300 Girls living in Slums

Chanda is the leader of a youth group called Star Kids. This is an off shoot of Vacha’s educational programme for girls from deprived families living in slums. “We hold meetings, have discussions on community issues and plan action. We run a youth library and conduct games.”, she says.
 
Chanda’s father died when she was one year old. She is 16 now and has two older brothers. The father had migrated from a village in Uttar Pradesh and made a home in one of the more poor areas at the back of a slum in Santacruz in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is a small room of barely 120 square feet where she lives with her mother and two brothers. They use a public toilet. The mother has raised the children by selling bananas on the roadside. She has also turned part of the home front in to a small shop space and rented it out. Currently no rent is coming in because they had borrowed money from the tenant that needs to be paid off. The oldest brother had a job in a garment making unit but that has closed down. So he is now jobless. The other brother is doing first year in an undergraduate college.
 
Despite all these impediments, Chanda is generally quite forward looking in life. She enjoys the workshops on photography, street theatre etc. conducted by Vacha Trust. She went through an emotional crisis recently. She had passed her class 10 examination after which students have to apply for admission in junior colleges for classes 11 and 12. Education for girls at this level continues to remain free. Chanda did not get admission anywhere in the initial rounds but then she got into one of the best colleges for class 11. Her mother refused to let her take admission in this college because it was at a distance and she did not want her daughter to have this long commute on a daily basis. Chanda was very keen and insisted on accepting the seat. She was beaten up but held on to her demand. Finally, with intervention from Vacha’s community organiser, the mother agreed.  A compromise was reached. Chanda is now able to attend a fairly good and upcoming college not too far from where she lives. It is her ambition to acquire good qualifications and extricate her family from the circle of poverty.
 
Your support will help Chanda fulfil her aspirations. On the occasion of International Women’s Day (8 March), we appeal to you to donate generously to champion girls like Chanda acquire a good education as well as the soft and hard skills necessary for a productive life in the 21^st century.
 
As part of the International Women’s Day campaign, we request you to kindly DONATE on

8 March   from   12:00 AM   to   11:59 PM   EST
                           viz.
8 March   from   10:30 AM   to   9 March   10:29 AM   IST
                           viz.
8 March   from   05:00 AM   to   9 March   04:59 AM   GMT.

Links:

• http://www.vacha.org.in

Shaheen, Farheen and Nausheen, three sisters, were encouraged to join the Vacha programme by the principal of their school in the community of Malvani slums in Mumbai. Apart from receiving academic inputs, they have also worked on publication of girls’ newsletters to highlight their fight against the issues of sanitation and sexual harassment. Lewd comments by boys, assaults and rapes of minors, kidnappings are rampant in this locality. Their mother objects to Burqa, the Veil, and says that if mindsets are not changed, crimes can be committed under a Burqa as well. This is a rare break girls have in life.

19 year old Shaheen is in the first year of an undergraduate degree program. She wants to complete her education, work and become independent so that she can have enough savings to pursue a variety of study courses.  Farheen, 16 years in age, is in her 10^th grade. Her confidence, leadership, negotiation abilities, stage presence and skills to deal with authorities have improved immensely after joining Vacha. She wants to be an actress but her mother strongly resists this idea. Nausheen idolizes the police didi (literally older sister but also used as a term of respect) who patrols this beat. Hence she would like to grow up to be a police woman. All the three girls would love to play outdoors but unfortunately none of them is allowed to go outside unchaperoned after 4 PM for safety reasons. Academics and future career are of prime importance to them.

Poor sanitation in this area makes the residents extremely vulnerable to infectious diseases. The water mafia has a big presence here and this very essential commodity has to be bought at high prices by the poor. This area has what are called illegal hutments on the outskirts erected just using asbestos and tarpaulin sheets. These are demolished time and again but spring back. Open defecation is a curse here with no imminent solution. The sisters live here.

Shaheen, Farheen and their father have been suffering from TB for over 2 years now. Nasreen, the oldest sister, has been recently cured of TB and her marriage is scheduled in early 2018. Shaheen and her father in fact have MDR TB, multi-drug resistant TB. The father is also a diabetic. Drugs for TB treatment are expensive and not always available at the government run primary health centres (PHC). Vacha field facilitators have to put up a stiff fight at the PHC at the behest of patients. Superstitions and myths associated with TB aggravate the problem and need constant intervention to be dealt with.

In the empowerment programs, Vacha supports the education of Shaheen and Farheen. Vacha is able to provide nutrition and medical support at least to Farheen. Let's usher in 2018 by pledging support to eradicate contagious diseases like TB in such neighborhoods. If this read has intrigued you, please share it with your near and dear ones to bring in cheer all across the world :-)

Links:

• http://www.vacha.org.in