Empowering the Youth in India

Dear reader

Hope you're safe and sound in these turbulent times.

The past months that brought the world to a complete standstill, it shut down people's lives completely. Businesses, shops, livelihoods, this virus affected over 28.6 million lives to date. In Rainbow Homes & Sneh Ghars and amongst the group living young adults, we tried to do our best in ensuring safety and adhering to the precautionary measures against COVID 19.

This quarter proved to be productive despite the challenges brought by the pandemic. We are thankful to our dedicated staff, stakeholders, to patrons like you, and many others who worked for and with our young adults under the Futures program. We have managed to initiate diverse interventions as designed in the Annual Futures Program Plan. The goal for this quarter was to complete the life plan reviews and make quick progress on the admissions and living arrangements for young adults in transition to independent living out of homes. 

Please find below some of the regular program updates and special interventions, undertaken.

Life exposure event: we had two life exposure events through a media expert and a poet. All young friends presented their poems with a live interaction hour. Later on, in the month we had a music session with a famous Jambe player (an African musical instrument). The guest is a musician, taking life on a challenge to become an international music player. He very passionately talked of life issues like - personal anxiety, resistance from family towards becoming a musician. Our YAs also asked many questions about his journey. Towards the end, he played the Jambe and our YAs enjoyed singing songs on environment issues. 

Discussion on health: We had an exhaustive session on Covid19 with public health experts in different languages across all the 10 cities in India where we are present. The young adults (YAs) were quizzed on their general knowledge and emergency steps if one catches an infection. Also discussed was a crucial topic of differences between lockdown, self-isolation, and quarantine, and the procedures were discussed, with the help of presentation to the larger groups.

Saggeza class: selected YAs attended 'Saturday Saggeza' computer program which helped them to explore coding.  

Career guidance class: A career guiding class was organized by 'Samvada- meaning conversation', an organization. This month we raised 56 books worth 6000/- to the YAs library in Bangalore alone.

Continuing education: We also underwent the admission processes of young adults which entail interaction with each home's would-be college attendee and choosing colleges based on the availability of seats, tuition fee, and the curriculum given, keeping in mind their interest and aspired careers. This was a celebratory process as all our current young adults' batches socred good marks despite the lockdown situations across the country. The same was concluded with many of them finalizing their colleges, a safe visit, an understanding of their term subjects leading to enrolment.

Life Education: Digital & Legal literacy: We had two round meetings with alternative law forums on legal literacy and got a proposal plan to implement the same. The session was focused on key themes like young adults' entitlements in India, the legal provisions, education structure, and laws. Much information was shared about accessing birth certificate, caste and income certificate, etc. It was an interactive session throughout where they put forth their queries on education certificates too. Another was a thorough session on the English language where we arranged an interaction with an English lecturer to have a conversation on learning English as a degree. 

Job /Placement: YAs who went to attend job interviews or had virtual interviews await their results next month. Amongst this, we had some who didn't want to pursue higher education hence we talked to some companies and NGOs for recruitment. The response was good. 

Alumni Follow up: Due to the pandemic there were incidents of young friends who passed out our homes long back and they came in contact with our homes carers once more in need of assistance in lockdown. So this quarter we reached out and included this group too in our regular alumni follow up. We were able to reach many such friends who needed emotional support and affiliation in these turbulent times.

Annual Program planning and budget planning with partner organizations: we had a presentation on the annual program plan and budget plan to all partners and direct home for more clarification on their involvement in the program They understood about the new future program and budget clarification and shared their challenges to state teams for further process. 

Webinar discussion on NEP: India issued a new education policy this quarter which required an exhaustive discussion with our nexus of residential teachers and carers throughout the 55 homes at present. The speakers at their levels were expert scholars and educators who shared information about the present education policy and new education policy differences. It was an interaction model to help the YAs to know about the policy process. 

Discussion on Marriage: YAs attended a discussion on marriage too, which was focused on marriage age and its impact on life. What are the gender roles people are taking in marriage life? How we are ready for this situation, trust issues, respect, and mutual likes and dislikes.YAs also expressed their doubts about the relationship between partners. It was concluded with a feeling that education and a steady income will help settle these personal aspects of life more smoothly. 

With your continued support, we plan to have many different interventions in the pipeline to condition the young adults with the changing pedagogies of education in the current pandemic world. For this, we aim to regularly strengthen our digital infrastructure at the care homes and with the young adults living spaces.

In solidarity

Rainbow Homes Futures Team

Dear friend of the Rainbows

We hope you're well and keeping safe.

While the world fights its worst pandemic to date, countries are combating it by going in a lockdown of people, businesses, shops, institutions, and livelihoods bringing the world to a standstill. But Child care is a service, which cannot be stopped, put on hold, or ignored. We at Rainbow Homes Program are doing every possible bit to ensure the children both young and older remain safe, protected, and cared for mentally and physically.

In this bit we share with you the new normal - adapting to the new routine wherein, we try to break that chain on the anxiety of being locked in and ensuring the quality education does not stop. We aimed at various innovative online virtual spaces of learning for young adults.

1. Life exposure and Life education - Josh - motivational videos were showcased. Live talks where people from various social, educational, career backgrounds shared their inspiring stories and journeys of facing struggle and overcoming the same. Key highlights out of the expert's life sessions were -

• Story of how a student dropped out of MBA and started his tea stall, now earning millions
• Importance of believing in your dreams and working hard for them
• Taking the first step in the career
• What happens when you gather the courage to make a decision and stick to it
• Taking responsibility of your life
• An inspiring story of facing failures and overcoming them to become a successful entrepreneur
• What happens when you refuse to give up
• Akshay Kumar shares the importance of discipline
• It is okay to not speak good English, your language does not define you, your confidence does
• Importance of knowing yourself inside out
• How sometimes a career gets shaped without planning
• How skills developed in one career help you in other careers
• Dream big, start small, act now
• Importance of giving your best in everything you do
• It takes hard and patience to succeed when people question your caliber
• Realistic positive thinking
• An Indian navy captain shares how his never-give-up attitude helped him survive
• Importance of pain in life
• Importance of doing everything as a process and not talent alone makes you successful
• Importance of having a goal
• The journey of becoming an IPS officer
• Life of an IPS officer

2. Personal grooming/personality enhancement/ Job readiness training - Live interactive sessions with videos were shared to help Young adults understand the various aspects of personality enhancement. Key takeaways - 

• How to overcome inferiority complex
• Efforts needed to improve communication skills
• Importance of voice quality in speaking
• Converting ideas into action
• Importance of commitment
• Importance of self-confidence
• How to prepare for interviews
• Effective Communication techniques in Sales field

3. Career guidance - Young adults took part in weekly webinars on various careers, first-hand information directly from the professionals on what it takes to make a career in a particular sector, the various options available, and the details of the involved options. Following careers options were discussed:

• A career as an artist by Shiba K, Bollywood playback and pop singer.
• A career as an entertainer by Ashi K, ex-founder- Goibibo and founder -Ind wealth.
• A career in fashion industry by P Bida, India’s most influential fashion stylist and choreographer.

With further support from you and other patrons, we hope to start a digital literacy program to help reach the homes, where we are unable to provide for electronic gadgets and other necessary interventions to virtually conduct the sessions. One of the children undergoing these sessions exclaims " I absolutely loved the sessions, getting to know my favorite choreographer, learning his life tale made me realize they're in every way the same as me and my friends, and that it's alright to not feel happy all the time. With pressure and responsibility and a constant willingness to prove myself I too can fulfill my life's passions. " - Polomi

(All the names discussed above are changed to respect the privacy of the individuals)

#stopthespread #spreadkindness instead

Rainbow Homes Program

Links:

• Our response to Covid 19 - RainbowFightsCorona