Empowering and Protecting Slum Girls

Farhana, 18, lives in Gopal Ji Colony in Samalka, Delhi, with her parents, daily wage laborers, and 4 of her siblings in a tiny, rented house. She was the first in the family to go to school and had passed her higher secondary examination last year. As an adolescent girl, it was physically and emotionally challenging for her to cope up with the physical transition within the vicious circle of poverty, economic vulnerability, social stigma, and the ongoing impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. She was anemic, ill-tempered, and a kind of rebel child. When Sukarya’s Adolescent Girls Empowerment & leadership Program (AGELP) team met with her during a field survey, she asked many questions about the program and could relate to her being a part of it. She understood the program's importance and need. Her parents were initially reluctant but later gave their consent after seeing Farhana's determination and interest. She joined the AGELP training sessions with full energy and proved herself to be a quick learner. Sukarya's team also took care of her and provided the much-needed comfort and freedom to participate in all training sessions. She was very punctual and motivated others to be effective. By the middle of the program, after attending just a  few sessions on Adolescent Health, Menstrual Hygiene & Reproductive Health, she had already become vocal and asked many probing questions on the topics with much clarity and led many group discussions. She wanted to become a Lead Girl of the program. She proved that when a girl is determined and focused, all hinders are negotiable. Way to go, Farhana!!

Adolescent Girls Empowerment & Leadership Program
October - December 2020

The project is currently in operation in 8 slum areas of Delhi, wherein 8 batches are created comprising 50 girls for each batch; a total of 400 adolescent girls are registered during this quarter. This Program has been restrategized post-covid-19 and renamed as “Adolescent Girls Empowerment & Leadership Program.” The team has done all the needful like; Identification of the locations, Situation analysis, Community Profiling, Area Assessment, and baseline survey before conducting the Orientation Session with these girls and their parents to understand the Program & its objectives. The details of the activities are given below.

No. of registered girls -  400 

No. of Orientation Sessions: A total of 8 Orientation Sessions have been done in all 8 slum area locations in Delhi.

No. of Training: Total 19 sessions of training session have been conducted

Topics of the Training: Adolescent Health, Menstrual Hygiene & Reproductive Health

No. of participants(training wise) sessions.

1. On Adolescent Health- Total of 8 sessions of training has been conducted with 372 girls.
2. On Menstrual Hygiene- Total of 7 sessions of training has been conducted with 328 girls.
3. On Reproductive Health- Total of 4 sessions of training has been conducted with 192 girls.