Empowering the Youth in India

Dear friend of the Rainbows

We pray you're keeping safe and well.

In this update of the futures program for young adults(YAs), we bring you a series of focused activities for this quarter that was conducted to build the capacities of our youth in the Rainbow Homes, who are beginning to take steps for their careers.

4/10/2021: an introductory Session on Life education primarily on gender understanding - Biological and Psychological making of gender and how gender understanding of society affects one's rules, preferences and choices in one's life.

10/10/2021: Career guidance session, introducing the various career choices at this day and age.

14/10/202: Discussion on the upcoming Future - Udaan (taking flight) workshop to understand the nitty-gritty and what will be the areas of focus for the staff to facilitate the smooth understanding amongst the participants.

15/10/2021: Reviewing of private annual Scholarship support that a handful of our children receive, understanding how can that benefit this Year’s recipients and exploring opportunities if another philanthropic group can support such drives.

Plantation drive: In hopes of bringing awareness to the ongoing climatic crisis, eleven of our Young adults participated in a plantation drive while they try to take care of their planted saplings for a minimum period of two years till they could set roots.

28/10/2021: Meeting I volunteer, a national NGO run by a volunteers group. Here twenty of our young adults will undergo a mentorship program where the mentors teach their mentees and interact with them in pursuit of education, career preparation guidance etc.

30/10/2021: session by a Mr Venkatesh from strength organisation who enlightened the staff and the young adults on current relevant Government Schemes for Youth – scholarship, Hostel facilities etc. This helps the Staff and YA to understand and explore the various scholarships and government given - free and subsidised hostels for group living arrangements.

17/11/2021: There was an awareness session on understanding differences between Good and Bad touch done by the childline to home’s youth.

19/11/2021: A recurring theme is a session on financial literacy - we make sure the youth understand the relevance of money management in their day to day life to handle their expenses and do the intelligent saving. These sessions touch areas like - Financial goal setting, budgeting and planning the costs and also the importance of saving. Also, what are the relevant financial instruments available for saving in the banks, i.e. Recurring Deposits, Fixed Deposits. Lastly, the Importance of Financial Risk Mitigation, Health insurance, Building a minimum corpus and investments were Introduced were some of the major highlights of the session with the Young adults.

20/11/2021: Life exposure session - sensitising the youth on the life and challenges of tribal communities. Due to Covid, instead of physical visits, the YAs watched a movie and had a healthy discussion in an open forum. 

11&12 /12/2021:  Twenty YAs attended Manujamata ciniyaan (a local film festival) on social issues. The two-day residency festival had a movie screening, discussion and extempores of various social problems. This was an enriching experience for YAs, familiarising them with more significant social issues affecting society on many levels. Two YAs also attended a program in Ragi kana on Dance therapy.

26 & 27 /12/2021:  A two-day workshop on Self-understanding with 22 YAs. The session aimed at helping the YAs to understand themselves freely through their emotions, without judgment and pressure in their inner selves. The focus was to enable them to understand what parts of their personality impact the decision making and ensure they understand the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that affect the decision-making process in our daily lives.

As an outstanding achievement, we had three impressive winners in the  SOUTH ASIAN ROPE SKIPPING CHAMPIONSHIP 2021-22 KATHMANDU (NEPAL). Two girls got gold medals for front and back skipping, while the other won third prize bronze for freestyle rope skipping. 

Currently, the ten cities are simultaneously undergoing their annual enabling and introductory workshop called - UDAAN (literal meaning - taking flight): The Udaan workshop is the first step in the life plan process. It encourages young adults turning sixteen to dream, to think about life in the long-term, in a broader sense and prepare for an independent life outside the Rainbow Homes when they turn eighteen. The workshop initiates a process of visualising a viable, feasible future while identifying their aspirations and goals and preparations at hand to achieve them.
The workshop sessions broadly cover

1) reflections about their past and present

2) aspirations and goals for the future and ways to achieve them

3) personal qualities they admire and want to develop

4) relationships and sex and

5) planning and goal setting for the future, including living arrangements after eighteen, continued education and career. These sessions encourage young adults to reflect on their lives and dreams and make clear and concrete plans for the future. 

We have organised state-level workshops in Hyderabad, Delhi and Patna. A total 450+ Children of age 15+ to 18 Years participated in these workshops. COIVD19 precautionary protocols were strictly followed throughout these workshops.

We certainly hope you continue sticking around as these young birds begin taking their first flight, in which your contribution matters a lot.

Regards

Rainbow Homes - Futures Program