Providing Education & Training to Women in India

Dear Supporters,

Each year schools in Kerala take break, following their end of March exams, which lasts until the beginning of June. During this holiday period this quarter we’ve focused our programmes on supporting community groups, church groups, women’s groups and self help groups in and around Fort Kochi and Ernakulam. 

On the education programme we’ve been working with community groups on a range of different 4-day and 8-day long workshops, covering topics such as spoken english and grammar, the environment, travel and geography, and recycling. To supplement the extra curricular learning, we’ve also engaged the community groups in fun craft activities, games and creative teamwork activities, whilst promoting life skills education. In total we’ve engaged 74 children on the education programme since the beginning of the summer workshops. Through the workshops the students have demonstrated teamwork, communication and leadership skills, as well as showing understanding and awareness for local and global issues, whilst developing problem solving skills, building their confidence and improving their presentation skills. The topics have been varied, with a consistent theme of improving English grammar through a lesson each day, we have also covered waste management, career paths, global geography, and inventions. 

Our particular highlights from the summer workshops have included seeing the enthusiasm that the students have for the environment, reusing plastic bags to create bracelets, learning about protecting endangered species, engaging in craft sessions and creating stories, role plays, dramas and movies. 

On the women’s empowerment programme we’ve continued our work with the Women’s Initiative Network (WIN Society),  Chulickal Women’s Group, Britfort English Academy and Palluruthi Relief Settlement, running conversational english classes, as well as craft sessions and workshops on topics such as self care and wellbeing. 

We’ve also had our first batch of women graduate from our new computer literacy programme, with a basic knowledge of computer functions and programmes such as MS Office. The objective of these sessions is to provide the women with an empowering space and make resources available so that they can learn new skills. These skills will help open up better opportunities and improve their employability. The women are now applying that basic knowledge of computers to practical tasks such as making CVs, budgets and account sheets,  which will help them apply for jobs, manage their money better, and use the internet as a tool to help them in their everyday lives.

This quarter we’ve also started our new micro-project, which aims to support students with Cerebral Palsy, by providing professional assessments and continuous support, as well as equipment and basic training to the parents and teachers at our parter schools. Physical Therapy is critical to increasing the mobility and independence of people who have Cerebral Palsy. Providing continued support through trained Physio Therapists will help the students both physically & emotionally, whilst setting the stage for entering adulthood as an independent individual. Additionally, a successful Physical Therapy program allows a parent to see their child using their body to the best of his or her ability, and potentially, living independently. This quarter we’ve conducted professional assessments of all the students at our parter school, and outlined their basic support needs. Moving into next quarter we aim to provide support, equipment and training to help the meet those needs.

We’ve achieved a lot in the first half of 2019, and there is still a lot to look forward to in the coming months. We are really looking forward to building on the successes of this quarter, and hope you keep in touch with what we are doing.

With Gratitude

GVI India

Dear Supporters, 

It has been an amazing start to the year,  for all our participants and project partners, and an exciting and inspiring first quarter full of project achievements and learnings for everyone involved. One of our main focuses this quarter has been on ensuring Healthy lives, well-being and promoting equal opportunities for people in Kerala.

We’ve engaged with eight different project partners this quarter, including multiple women’s groups, primary and secondary schools, both governmental and non-governmental organisations, as well as an english language academy. Our projects have had a variety of different focuses around the themes of Women’s Empowerment, Education, Sports and Health. Our core focus this quarter has been on ensuring Healthy lives, well-being and promoting equal opportunities for people in Kerala.

We’ve worked towards this objective by preparing students for their exams, delivering sessions on stress management, study tips, time management and motivation techniques. These workshops are designed to help the students and their families in the run up to the exam season which starts at the end of March each year.

In addition to running these sessions in schools through our education programme, we’ve also been conducting health and wellness sessions with our local women’s groups through our women’s empowerment programme, on topics such as self care and nutrition, which have been running alongside the classes we conduct to improve their conversational english.

Through our sports programme we’ve been engaging in sports and sensory activities to help develop the fine and gross motor skills of students with special educational needs through two of our project partners.

We’re also excited to announce that we’ve started two new programmes this quarter, which we are already getting great results from:

In January, we started a new vocational training programme at one of our special needs schools, with the aim of helping the students there to earn an income whilst developing their own skill sets. The students have been learning how to make paper bags, which the school can then sell on to local hotel chains. We’ve now seen two students graduate our paper bag training programme, and several others get to the stage where they can make paper bags independently without assistance. These students will now be able to join the vocational unit and start getting an income for the bags that they make.

In March we started a new Computer Literacy Programme with one of our local women’s groups. These classes aim to provide better opportunities to women by equipping them with the IT skills required by some employers to enter the workforce. The skills they learn are also cross transferable to other parts of their life. The sessions have started off by focusing on basic computer literacy, helping the women to learn how to use the basic functions on a computer. The sessions will then develop by building on this knowledge, enabling the women to learn how they can use computers to make CVs, budgets and account sheets, apply for jobs, and search the internet.

Overall we’ve had a really strong start to 2019, we’ve enjoyed re-establishing some of existing projects, whilst also starting some fantastic new ones. We hope you are as excited as we are to see how all of these projects develop over the coming year.

With Gratitude, 

GVI India