By Dr. Ashok Dyalchand | Director
Dear Donors, thanks for helping us to help the needy. Your generous donations enabled us to empower 1500 adolescent girls through our pretested intervention of Life Skills Education. In many communities, adolescent girls often lack spaces to build their confidence and self-esteem in constructive and healthy ways, particularly when it comes to communicating their needs and wants, exercising their rights, and expressing their emotions.
Building inner strength and making good choices are two of the most important ways we can help a girl to learn. Often, inner strength is called ‘self-esteem’.
We conducted Life Skills Education (LSE) classes for unmarried adolescent girls to help them build their confidence and self esteem. It is being executed in rural as well as urban area. The proportion of girls with low self esteem reduced from 9% to 2% and proportion with low self efficacy from 14% to 3%.
Rural: In this quarter, 46 LSE classes were conducted and on an average 455 adolescent girls attended the LSE class. Five supervisors were assigned to supervise the LSE classes.
A rally of adolescent girls on “Preventing Child Marriage” was organized in 20 villages where a total number of 1164 girls participated to make the event successful. There was one more rally conducted on “Importance of Education for Girls” in 20 villages in which 1220 girls participated. A street play was organized in the month of October in 16 villages. The theme of the play was preventing child marriage. The chief guest for the function was Smt. Jayashree, a renowned social worker and a research person who trained girls in performing street play. An audience of 1655 people was present for this play.
In the rural sector Life Skills Education for unmarried adolescent girls is well established and evaluated as it has been implemented since 2013. Based on this experience IHMP has adapted life skills education for adolescent girls living in urban slums.
Urban: In urban slums LSE classes for unmarried adolescent girls started in August 2015. LSE classes in the urban context are conducted over weekends considering the school schedule of adolescent girls. A total of 203 girls from 9 slums attended LSE classes. Supervision of LSE was carried out through IHMP field coordinators.
We believe that using different kind of participatory activities makes the session more interesting for everyone. Moreover it helps girls to open up and respond.
IPC to parents of adolescent girls: Home based inter-personal communication (IPC) and counseling was planned and carried out for the girls who were found to be irregular at the LSE sessions. Home based IPC was provided by the field coordinator along with CHWs. During these visits counseling on importance of LSE, topics that are covered in the LSE curricula, etc. was provided. A total of 130 IPC sessions for girls and their parents were conducted. As a result 60 girls started attending the LSE classes regularly.
Peer leader selection and training: Two girls from each LSE class were selected as peer leaders. A total of 18 girls were selected as peer leaders from 9 LSE classes. Leadership training of 3 days duration was organized for peer leaders. A total of 17 peer leaders, 9 CHWs and IHMP field coordinators participated in the training. Participatory methods were used to generate discussions among girls.
Impact of LSE on cognitive skills: A total of 206 girls participated from 9 CHW areas in the pre-test and 180 girls were covered during the post test in the urban. There was a measurable and significant increase in cognitive and practical skills among the adolescent girls.
Case Study
Kalpana is a resident of Georai. She is 16 years old and studying in 11th standard. She completed ‘Life Skills’ course from the first batch of Life Skills Education in her village. She is a member of the adolescent girls club (Kishori Mandal). Her mother has studied up to 7th standard and works as the ASHA in her village. Her father has studied up to 9th standard and he works as an agriculture laborer.
She attended ‘Life Skills’ classes regularly. She learnt about the importance of education from the Life Skills classes. She could not afford to go to coaching classes or take tuition because of the poor economic condition of her family. She decided to do self studies in 10th standard. She got 67 percent marks in 10th Board exams because of systematic study and hard work. She also used to go to work as an agricultural laborer with her mother during holidays. The money she earned was used for buying books and stationary required by her. She wants to do general nursing after 12th standard. She has decided to get married only after completing her education.
She was selected as a peer leader by her friends because she is always willing to help others in their studies. After attending peer leader training, she has started writing reports for the adolescent girls club (Kishori Mandal) activities in the minute’s book given to them. She learnt how to draw ‘mehendi’ (Henna) designs in her Life Skills classes. Now if there is a wedding of a girl in the village, she is called to do henna ‘mehendi’ for the bride. She participates in the street play and encourages other girls also to take part.
Kalpana says “because of Life Skills education, my self-esteem has improved and I realized who I am? Now I do not hesitate to speak in front of anyone and I can express my opinion very well”.
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By Dr. Ashok Dyalchand | Director
By Hannah Schober | Communications Intern
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