Enable 100 low-income girls to complete graduation

Executive Summary

Udayan Shalini Fellowship (USF), one of the unique programmes of Udayan Care, aims to promote and support higher education for girls from disadvantaged background to develop them into dignified independent young women. The fellowship ensures that the lives of the girls do not succumb to monetary hardships and they do not give away their most cherished dream to think big and make a mark for themselves. However, USF is not just envisaged as a monetary assistance programme, rather, as a holistic programme of sustained mentoring support and association. The growth is fostered with continued association of mentoring, motivational workshops, and development of socially responsible behavior through awareness drives. The fellowship stands different because of its pyramidal mentoring.

The months were filled with a series of activities which included Quarterly Workshop on Career Prospects, an inspirational session on new perspective of looking at life and a workshop on different employment opportunities and courses provided Shalinis with new opportunities. USF successfully organized the 6^th Alumnae meet with much zeal and enthusiasm.

QUARTERLY WORKSHOP

DATE: 8^th January’ 2017

FACILITATOR: Mr Sameer, General Manager of Coca Cola India Inc.

THEME: Career Prospects

PROCESS OF THE WORKSHOP

The facilitator, with his everlasting energy, enlightened our Shalinis with some mind boggling thoughts and encouraged them to think out of the box. He commenced the workshop by saying that output is the function of input in our life. So, we need to keep a watch over our inputs in order to ensure the best outcome. Similarly, a degree is an input which gives us the end outcome of achieving our goals in life. 

The facilitator discussed in detail the things which affect one’s dreams which are mainly family, financial situation, exposure, networking, mindset, talent, ability to work hard and ability to take risks.

The facilitator talked about the various job portals like Timesjobs.com, monster.com, etc. where the fellows can get themselves registered and check jobs according to their interests. The fellows were advised to read education/job specific pages of different newspapers. They were given knowledge about different fields like IT related courses, journalism, radiology courses, etc which have much more scope now. He also emphasized on fellows’ parents exposure to different streams and jobs so that they do not stop them from pursuing it.

CONCLUSIVE OUTCOME:

• Gained knowledge about different job portals and sources of job opportunities like job fairs, newspapers.
• Got knowledge about different kinds of courses like radiology, IT networking, journalism, etc.

ALUMNAE MEET

DATE: 22^nd January ’17

Udayan Shalini Fellowship Alumnae Association successfully conducted the “6^th Alumnae Meet”. They all came together to share their stories of success with our current Shalinis and all the other people present there. They also shared their experience with the Udayan Shalini Fellowship programme and what impact it has created in their lives.

Besides Shalinis, Mentors from different walks of life graced the occasion. Our Ex-shalinis showed the path to making a difference in the society in various ways. They motivated our Shalinis to give back to the society and strengthen our USF Programme.

Ex- Shalinis shared the following ways of contributing to the society which they are currently adopting:

• Our Alumnae fellows are involved in mentoring of the young fellows to guide them in their career.
• Some of our alumnae are even contributing some part of their salaries.
• Alumnae fellows are providing subject classes also to the young shalinis.
• Our Alumnae fellows, who are now working, have introduced Udayan Care to CSR team of their companies.
• Some Alumnae fellows helped in raising funds through Airtel Delhi Half Marathon.
• Our Alumnae fellows have also taken part in parents’ meet, organized at the Gurgaon chapter, on changing the rural conservative mindset of the families.

Apart from these, some other ways suggested by our Alumnae by which Shalinis can give back to the society and to the USF programme are:

• Shalinis can bring in their friends from different areas who can provide career counseling or can help in conducting workshops for the young fellows.
• Alumnae can volunteer by showing their presence in different activities of USF like Induction, written tests, interviews, home visits, etc.
• Fellows can always share their knowledge with others and can teach younger students also.
• Fellows can participate in social campaigns like Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Say no to tobacco. They can also help in propagating the social messages like Green and eco-friendly Diwali, etc.

Our Alumnae culminated the event by taking a pledge to reach out to the less fortunate throughout their life and to build an India where righteousness and honor is always respected. Above all, our Alumnae pledged to become tomorrow’s leaders.

SMALL GROUP WORKSHOP/MENTOR – MENTEE MEET

DATE: 5^th February ’17

FACILITATOR: Mr Niren -Global President of Yum! Brands Inc.

THEME : Motivational Talk

BACKGROUND OF THE WORKSHOP

The facilitator shared the journey of his daughter, Aisha, who died at the age of 18 due to pulmonary fibrosis. She was a motivational speaker at INK talks and the author of book “My Little Epiphanies”. Despite suffering from a life taking disease, she was lively, hopeful, determined and wise beyond her years.

PROCESS OF THE WORKHOP:

The facilitator started the workshop with the quote, “We are here to laugh at the odds and live our lives so well that death also trembles when it come to take us." He shared how every breath of Aisha was a struggle for her but still she chose to be happy and enjoyed every bit of moment. She had sorted out life in ways that older people can only hope to do. Wisdom is not about the number of years we spend on earth, but, about the way in which we utilize the time we have here.

The session ended with a motivating quote shared from Aisha’s book, My Little Epiphanies.

 “Let’s aim for the moon, walk in the darkness together and catch the glittering stars along the way” filling the fellows with enthusiasm and zeal to face all the difficulties of life come what may.

CONCLUSIVE OUTCOME

• Session left a remarkable effect on all fellows
• Inspiring words gave fellows a new perspective to look at life
• Session gave them a new definition of courage, hope and optimism

MENTOR – MENTEE MEET

Mentor mentee meet was organized primarily to prepare fellows to write their upcoming exams. The mentors addressed academic issues as well as personal issues, if any, of their mentees. Fellows were motivated to face their approaching exams stress free. They were told that their health is also important, along with their exams, which students mostly neglect during the exams. Mentors provided fellows the effective ways to attempt questions in their exams.

One of the mentors conducted an activity for all the mentees present to make them feel good about themselves. She made them do a forgiveness prayer to make them experience how it feels. She explained to them how important it is to let go the hurt caused by others and forgive oneself as well as others. It was a very peaceful act for mentees. They felt very light after this.

Outcome:

• Their stress of taking exams reduced a lot making them feel relieved.
• They got an understanding of the ways of preparing for exams which will help them to improve further.
• Mentor’s confidence in their fellows, that they would do well, gave a huge boost to the confidence of the fellows.

Fellows became highly motivated to achieve greater heights.

SMALL GROUP WORKSHOP

DATE: 5^th March ’17

THEME: International Women’s Day/Information on new courses and employment options

SESSION ONE

In the first session, the fellows were made to recall the vision, mission and the new tagline of Udayan Care so that they can learn it by heart and act as ambassadors of Udayan Care. Fellows recalled, with full spirit, the pledge which they took at the time of their induction.

The Facilitator asked fellows about the importance of the month March and in which context the month is famous for. Some fellows were aware and they responded that this month is celebrated as women’s month at various places as 8^th March is International Women’s Day. Facilitator told them about the history of this day, why this day came into effect and how this day is celebrated across various countries. Facilitator also shared that this year the Women’s Day theme was #BeBoldForChange, for Ministry of Women and Child Development.

Facilitator shared the quote, “Nobody can make you feel inferior without your permission” filling the fellows with motivation. They promised themselves that they would never allow anyone to belittle them.

 SESSION TWO

Session two was taken by our ex fellow, Rashmi, who came with her colleague, Shahzad, the regional manager of Shokeenda Group of Companies. Fellows were informed about their ‘Shokeenda Institute of Fashion Technology’.They provided fellows with all information on how to take admission in various courses available in the institute. They also shared that the institute provides scholarship to students coming from financially weak background. The scholarship is provided by International Trade Org and Jagat Singh Foundation. The institute provides 100% placements. 

Rashmi also shared information of a freelancing job opportunity involving website development. This would provide the fellows an option to work from home, without hampering their studies. 

Conclusion

• Fellows learnt about the history of International Women’s Day
• Fellows got to know about a new institute and new fashion designing courses
• Fellows got to know about freelancing work

SUCCESS STORY

“Unrelenting Struggle and Hard work”

Hailing from an economically weak background, Neha(name changed), had big dreams. She wanted to get herself enrolled in the commerce stream after tenth and then pursue an MBA. Her father, a washer man and the sole earner in the family, had to support a family of 6 members. It was not possible for her father to support an expensive stream like commerce along with supporting other children’s education.

At that time, Udayan Shalini Fellowship came as a blessing in her life which gave her the hope of pursuing her dreams. With the USF support, she was able to take admission in the commerce stream. After schooling, she got admission in Daulat Ram College, one the best colleges in Delhi University. Having a clear vision of doing MBA and being aware of her family’s financial conditions, she thought of working along with her studies to fund her MBA. Thus, she decided to withdraw her admission from this college and pursue graduation through open learning.

She never gave up on her dream of pursuing MBA and thus juggled between her studies and work. As she was not pursuing graduation from a regular college, she could not avail the facility of fellowship from Udayan Care. However, her keen learning attitude kept her associated with Udayan Shalini Fellowship in its various activities.

She has now cleared the CET exam of Indraprastha University and fulfilling her lifelong dream of pursuing an MBA. Having seen her dedication and hard work, USF now is supporting her higher education.

Neha, with her unrelenting struggle and dedication, carved a niche for herself and went on to achieve her dreams despite her difficult circumstances. She has become a role model for all other girls!