Kolkata Sanved collaborated with Jeevika Development Society in Joka and Institute of Psychological and Educational Research (IPER) Lake Gardens, to conduct Dance Movement Therapy based Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (SRHR) workshops over a period of six months.
The participants were young adolescent girls between the age group of 12 years to 18 years. The participants at Jeevika were from remote villages of South 24 Parganas and the participants at IPER belonged from marginalized sections of the community at Lake Gardens in the city of Kolkata. In both cases the partner organization assessed that the youngsters often faced various types of gender-based violence and are prone to become prey due to lack of knowledge about basic rights especially sexual reproductive health rights. The rate of child marriage is also high in the areas where these children live. Topics discussed during the sessions were on body awareness, body mapping, Sex and Gender, Gender stressors, Menstrual Cycle and Reproduction, HIV, navigating safe relationships and understanding safe space.
The group had great enthusiasm in attending the sessions. They were able to follow instructions while doing the movements. The girls have some restrictions at home, like pressure of getting married, resistance towards education but they are still trying to complete their schooling in spite of the resistance. They were able to identify the gender based stereotypes and restrictions that they have to face at home as they are girls. Sessions related to safe and unsafe relationships and the concept of consent, sexual intimacy, family planning methods were discussed with the group to make them aware about their sexual reproductive health rights.
Objectives :
-Creating body awareness among participants and helping them understand their own body
-Helping participants understand the difference between sex and gender and gender stressors at present and during the lifespan.Four Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights workshops for adolescent girls were completed between January 2022 and March 2022 at four different locations; Chitpore, Sickine and Khidirpore in Kolkata and Jonha in Jharkhand. Kolkata Sanved collaborated with three NGOs, Hope Kolkata Foundation, DIKSHA and Aahan Foundation to facilitate the above mentioned workshops. The workshops were facilitated with the youngsters with the aim of creating awareness on gender, sex, sexuality, safe sex, and safe and healthy relationships. A total of 69 youngsters participated in the workshops. The participants were mostly adolescent girls, however their overall age ranged from 11 to 20. The participants came from marginalized communities, residing in urban slums of Kolkata and tribal villages in Jharkhand. The workshop gave the participants an opportunity to discuss many taboo subjects like menstruation, sexual organs, sexuality, safe sex and romantic relationships and learn correct information about these topics which will help them to understand and look after their sexual and reproductive health. The workshops also gave the participants an understanding of gender, sex, gender identity and sexual orientation. During the sessions the participants reflected on their own lives and questioned the existing gender norms and were sensitized about diverse gender identities and sexual orientation. The workshops received positive feedback from the participants who shared that they learnt many new things from the sessions and will share their knowledge with their peers.
Participants at khidirpore doing an activity on identifying safe space
Participants at Jonha doing a body mapping exercise
In Spite of the challenges faced due to the ongoing Pandemic, Kolkata Sanved was able to overcome the limitations and conduct online sessions on Sexual & Reproductive Health & Rights (SRHR) with the Tribal adolescent girls from the backward remote village in Jharkhand in India, in collaboration with Aahan Foundation, which works closely with the Tribal community. 10 adolescent Tribal girls would come to the Community center for their online SRHR sessions conducted in the month of June & July (when the raging pandemic was under control), keeping all covid protocols in mind. The sessions focused on topics like body awareness, learning about body parts, differences between gender and gender stressors and also touched upon intersex and transgender issues. This was the 1st time SRHR was conducted in online mode. The DMT practitioners faced several challenges because of internet connectivity issues and power outages in the village. However through improvisation like shifting to WhatsApp video calls, home assignments etc the sessions were conducted successfully.
|
Project Reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you will get an e-mail when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports via e-mail without donating.
We'll only email you new reports and updates about this project.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser