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