By Sonal Shukla | Trustee
Dear Friends,
Thank you once again for supporting our work with adolescent girls from poor families with multiple handicap of being in religious, ethnic and linguistic minorities. Currently we are active in 16 such areas with a programme of empowerment thru inculcation of skills. Recently, girls from all our centres made a trip to a historical display, an aquarium and Kamla Nehru Park, a special space for kids and adolescents with a view to introduce them to available resources in the city.
We would like to share about a special 9 Day event that was organized to cover 9 days of the popular Navratri festival of Mother Goddess in September/October. It celebrates women’s fertility thru its symbol of an earthen pot with a lamp inside called garba, a term derived from garbh meaning uterus and fetus. It is well known how women’s sexuality and fertility have been used and misused. Beginning our sex and health education programme we had encouraged girls in early adolescence to speak out on their perceptions and experience around issue of menstruation where untouchability is practiced against girls and women. These were published as a booklet. The matter connects with cleanliness, hygiene and even self esteem issues.
Paromita Vhora, a well known writer and short film maker, offered to produce, based on this booklet, a series of ‘post cards’ called Agents of Ishque (love and romance) for each day of the festival to draw attention to what actually happens to girls when their first step in fertility, namely, menstruation, one card on each of the nine days. Post cards are in two languages. The campaign was much appreciated and we plan to work further on this issue. We are sharing these ‘post cards’ with you. Your comments will be important to us.
Episode 1: Oh No! Not Again! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdNruCrbhIM
Episode 2: Out of Syllabus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iRAKQqRfQk
Episode 3: Mission Mushkil https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KRjtzYmLfw
Episode 4: Cheaters https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7t0D71lB3Eo
Episode 5: Blister? My Foot! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mWFJ3fzt7M
Episode 6: Faltu Ke Tohfe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ND7YNMSqaek
Episode 7: Tu Shaani Zaali https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pilUvP0aho
Episode 8: Lonely Nights https://youtu.be/Tr8AOM_P2-0
Episode 9: Kurte Ke Peeche https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xo2k3rg0uM
Our website gives information on many such activities. Please do visit www.vacha.org.in from time to time.
With best regards,
Sonal Shukla
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