Life skills training of 300 girls in Mumbai slums

Hello friends,

With support from all of you we had organized several activities since the last report.

Annual school exams get over by April 15 and the summer holidays were on till June 13. This period is best suited for organizing longer workshops as the girls have limited time during the year with school and many domestic chores.

In all 132 girls from six communities and  139 girls from five schools participated in workshops.

 Schools cooperated and provided space for workshops for a week in April. Girls created paper ornaments, masks and cartoon strips. Some of these will be displayed during their theatre performances and newsletter release. Many girls expressed their joy of learning to  be creative  and making articles they could use and share with others.

 In communities, workshops were held in speech making, puppet making, theatre, power point presentations, craft and photography. One group connected what they had learnt in  workshop on Right to Food and another one on puppetry , presented a show in a women’s meeting.

In two conservative communities, pubic speeches were made only during women’s meetings but even that opportunity, they said, gave them more confidence. Another group made power point presentations on topics like ‘ Our Visit to Fire Station’, ‘ Our Community Work with Vacha’ and ‘How We Produce Our Newsletter.’ Many others are planning their displays and shows during rest of the year.

Malvani centre is at quite a distance from other communities where we are active. Netivali centre in Kalyan is even further away. These are the communities where some important events took place .

 A health and gender fair in Malvani was followed up by a health camp for girls. 79 girls attended the camp and underwent general health check up and blood test.  There were two potential cases of Tuberculosis . These and other suspected medical problems are being investigated now. Basic necessary medicines were dispensed on the same day to many.  

These girls also participated in a photography workshop. For more than 99% of the girls who participated it was the very first experience of holding a camera in their hands and photographing people and places in their community.

Interactive gender fair was organized in Netivali centre at Kalyan in the small open space.  110 girls and 23 women from the community participated in this event.

Regular sessions in health, social awareness and English speaking and so on continue. The idea is to empower girls with skills and exposures so that they can also become change agents themselves. It must be said here that our work is sometimes obstructed due to traditional mind sets and extreme space shortage for our work and we have to find ways to get around these problems. Your support and  goodwill help us remain active and optimistic.   

Vacha prepares girls to become visible in civic life, a requirement for future participation of women in politics.  We would like to share a brief coverage of Vacha in a documentary on women’s participation in politics made by a video journalist from Germany.  A link to the footage is  https://vimeo.com/41765156

Sonal Shukla

Director

Vacha Charitable Trust

Mumbai