By Priya Shankar | Co-Founder
Dear Donor,
2023 was a tough year for all of us at Adolescent Health Champions (AHC). The loss of our beloved Co-Founder, Ricky Sharma left a huge void in all of us both personally and professionally. Ricky played an instrumental role in building AHC and his absence has proved to be extremely challenging. During these tough times, we gather strength by remembering Ricky’s dedication, vision and passion for adolescent health which continues to motivate us to work towards realizing his dreams.
In spite of Ricky’s passing, we were successfully able to meet all of our commitments for the 2023-24 academic year. In rural Jharkhand, along with our partner, Ugam Education Foundation (UEF), we completed programming in 105 Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBV) in 9 districts. A total of 2000+ Champions from the 9th-standard were trained to lead health sessions on anemia, menstruation, and mental health with 12600+ KGBV girls from the 8th-standard.
In Rajasthan, with our implementation partner, Urmul Setu Sansthan (USS), we completed programming in 25 co-ed low-income government schools in the Lunkaransar Block of Bikaner district. In total, we trained 240+ Champions from the 11th standard who led sessions on Mental Health with 3000+ students from the 8th and 9th standards respectively. In addition to launching our intervention in Lunkaransar, we also started peer-led mental health clubs in 21 of our intervention schools and trained 220 students from 9th-standard as leaders to facilitate mental health-focused discussions and conduct activities with 7th and 8th standard students in an engaging way.
We are on track for the 2024-25 academic year and plan to continue interventions for the third year in Jharkhand and second year in Rajasthan. Our goal during the academic year 2024-25 is to expand to new KGBV schools in Jharkhand and bring ourselves closer to the goal of programming in all the 260 KGBVs in the state. In Rajasthan, we plan to expand to new low-income government schools to raise awareness on mental health amongst more adolescents in the region. Moreover, we also aim to connect with new organizations in other parts of the country and globally to explore new partnership opportunities.
As we gear up to pursue our goals for the upcoming year, please consider donating today as your contributions will make a huge difference in fueling our expansion plans to support more adolescents than ever before.
With love,
The Adolescent Health Champions team
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