Gender Equality India Project #16755

Providing Life Skills to 300 Girls living in Slums

by Vacha Charitable Trust

Project Report | May 31, 2017
A Future Fashion Designer - Savita

By Sonal Shukla | Managing Trustee

Savita

Dear Friends,

Warm greetings from Vacha, Mumbai. We trust everything is fine with you.

Savita is one of our programme graduates who continue working for their community. Savita lives in one of the poorer slums near Juhu in Mumbai. Her father had a minor job in entertainment industry but is currently jobless. Savita, a cheerful soul, was never much interested in academic studies but always showed leadership qualities. Currently she is doing a course in designing. Competing with rich kids on innovative designing, she still got a third prize from SNDT Women’s University. She recently conducted a summer work shop for girls in Vacha classes on conceptualizing design and creating beautiful objects that people can use. They used old clips to make hangers, clay to make ornaments, old scarves for background in displays, old magazines to make envelopes and greeting cards and even old shows to paint and make them attractive. Girls designed their own invite for exhibition of their products, all of which got sold in their own neighbourhood for INR about six hundred whereas their investment was for less than rupees fifty. The amount is saved for their own next activity.

The workshop brought joys of creativity and of learning new skills. The religious head of local temple who had been somewhat hostile to our work was so pleased to see girls’ work that he has offered the community space attached to the temple for girls’ activities.

We plan to use Savita’s training skills in some of the 17 slums where Vacha is active and even pay her some remuneration. She had done this workshop voluntarily.

In another poor area, the skilled youth group Umang that has emerged from Vacha’s programme is running a centre to help the community to acquire important documents, make queries under Right to Information and accessing external exams results that now come only on internet though the poor have no access to computers to get them directly.

We sincerely thank all of you for your kind support.

With best wishes and regards,

Sonal Shukla

Creative Design Workshop

Output from the Creative Design Workshop

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Mar 3, 2017
Sabah's Story

By Sonal Shukla | Trustee

Sabah at Symposium

Hello friends,

Vacha’s project of empowering girls thru training in hard and soft skills is doing well in 17 slums in Mumbai. Of these girls in three communities are supported by your invaluable contributions. Our sincere thanks to all of you for this.

Sabah’s Story: Sabah lives with her family in a large slum. To reach her one room home you have to climb up a badly maintained ladder. Sabah as well as her brother have lost one third of a finger each negotiating the climb. It is a two storied tenement. They have no water tap and must carry all water from a public water tap in the street. Her skills in use of English, computers, in speak outs, in publishing a community newsletter etc. thru Vacha’s program have helped develop her potential. She passed her class 12 very well and is now in an undergraduate college studying Finance.

The college environment was a bit daunting initially. Most students were from affluent families and had well educated parents. But she was determined to make a mark. She heard there was going to be a seminar on Role andContribution of SMEs- Small and Medium Enterprises - in Indian Economy. Sabah studied the topic seriously and wrote and submitted a paper that got selected for publication in the college journal. Sabah was invited to make a presentation at the seminar. She would have to speak in an auditorium full of teachers, scholars and national and international dignitaries and in English too! Not one to be defeated, she prepared to present her thesis to the audience. Sabah explained her thesis about the importance of government support to SMEs, micro scale innovation, women entrepreneurs, and challenges in employment growth with proposed solutions. She ended saying, “We must encourage girls and young women to study and run their own small businesses, they do manage their households, don’t they?.” Mr. Wahrenburg, Head of Environmental Engineering group in Berlin congratulated her personally.

Sabah wants to continue with her community work and not just meet her personal targets. We feel this is a real triumph for her and for all of us who have contributed to her progress.

An Urgent Request: We can qualify for more support thru Global Givings’ Girl Fund campaign if we get donations from different individuals before March 15 . It is an opportunity for projects dedicated to women and girls to gain support and funding and to compete for a chance to earn a spot in the Girl fund for all of 2017. The campaign runs from March 1^st 2017 to March 15^th 2017 with a matching day on March 8^th to celebrate International Women’s Day. It will help us grea if you and your friends make a contribution during this period.Here is the link: https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/life-skills-training-for-poor-girls-in-slums-in-india/

Links:

https://girlhoodindia.wordpress.com/

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Dec 20, 2016
Season's Card and New Year Wishes

By Sonal Shukla | Trustee

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