By Dr. Dyalchand | Director
Asha is a 21 year old girl who lives in Malevadi village. She belongs to a marginalized family. Her mother has merely 4 years of schooling and her father is educated till 10th class, in the local school. They both work as agricultural laborers on their own small piece of land. Asha has two sisters and a brother. All three siblings could complete only 12 years of schooling, following which the two sisters got married and stopped working and the brother has a semi skilled job as a mechanic.
Asha is a quintessential example of the impact that Life Skills Education is having on adolescent girls.
She first attended Life Skills Education, of 6 months duration, conducted by Institute of Health Management Pachod, in 2016, when she was 15 years old. She was elected as Peer Leader by the girl’s collective of her village. She attended the sessions regularly, took part in all the projects and activities held by the girls collective of her village. She got so influenced by the course that she kept enrolling four times in subsequent Life Skills Education courses conducted over the next several years.
When Asha was asked what impact Life Skills Education had on her, she said ”I felt much more confident, I learnt how to communicate with ease, I learnt about menstrual hygiene, sexual and reproductive health and how to protect myself from sexual harassment. But above all else I was motivated to continue with my education. I was able to convince my parents not to arrange my marriage till I finish college education and start working.
I am studying in a college located in a neighbouring town to get a Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com) degree. I want to work in a bank after my graduation”.
Asha decided to coach the girls in her village regarding the possibilities of higher education available to them and the advantages of continuing education beyond 12 years of school. Soon she started coaching girls from several neighbouring villages as well. So far she has coached and motivated over 300 girls.
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
