'Football to Eyeball' is Akhand Jyoti's unique girls education, development and empowerment program which involves encouraging girls to play football. The program works on the principle of "Teach football to the girls and draw them out of their homes". Girls are given free boarding, education, vocational training and an opportunity to gain a formal academic qualification as an optometrist. They are later offered employment within Akhand Jyoti opening up a way for a better life.
In a deep-rooted patriarchal society of Bihar, women and girls face considerable discrimination, inequality, child marriage, dowry demands, and physical abuse. Female literacy in Bihar is the lowest in India. Bihar is at the bottom rungs of the United Nations Gender Related Development Index (GDI) and the Gender Empowerment Measure (GEM).
Our efforts to empower girls to lead the eradication of blindness in Bihar are instrumental in helping girls develop and become gender equality champions. Girls typically from a relatively poor social and economically weak background are inducted into the program. Girls are given free boarding, education, vocational training and an opportunity to gain a formal academic qualification as an optometrist. They are later offered employment within Akhand Jyoti opening up a way for a better life.
This program builds up the girls' self-confidence, team-work, disciplines and drive competitiveness and ambitions. We have seen girls, who have been through our education program, mature and grow with academic and practical knowledge, and confidence, and are now increasingly becoming role models in the broader local community. They have become a core, and very able, part of our team striving to eradicate blindness in Bihar. Over 150 girls have been trained as qualified optometrist.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
