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More about The South India Girl Child Initiative
Nalamdana's Model
After conducting a baseline study (needs assessment) in some local slums, colleges and schools, through April and May 2006, Nalamdana chose four sites for the first two years:
1. To work with challenged girl children in one Government School in urban South Chennai, 7th and 8th grade girls (approximate ages 12 -13 years)
2. To reach 17 to 19 year old girls from challenged backgrounds in two community colleges in urban Chennai. Nalamdana selected Queen Mary's college and MGR Janaki college, as both cater to lower income families. Over 90% of the 3000 plus students at Queen Mary's college are studying free of cost.
3. To create an adolescent girls' group in one urban slum, where out of school girls and those attending local schools can converge and meet often, learning skills and exchanging ideas. Nalamdana selected the "Urur Alcot kuppam" where we support the local day care centre and have also worked in the past. As of December 2006, around twenty girls have started meeting regularly. During January 2007 we ran theatre training workshops and they performed for their community.
All sites are currently active. We used different methods in each site, as we are deeply interested in methodology research. We will be able to share this information with many of our partners, through training modules, by the end of these three years.
Reach
Direct target audience: 150 school girls from the 8th and 9th grades in the corporation run school, 50 + 50 college girls in the 17 - 18 year age group in the two colleges and some 20 adolescent girls in the urban slum group are being covered so far. Total: around 270 girls.
Indirectly: mothers of pre-school children in the day care centers where Nalamdana works on a nutrition related project; teachers; other college students, numbering some 1500 girls, have been sensitized through trained drama teams on their own campus.
As part of the HIV/AIDS education, Nalamdana showed their training tele film on HIV/AIDS at one of the colleges, followed by an interactive discussion about the film. The same model is being followed in the second college. Also, one live drama for about 500 college students was held during the World AIDS week as a first level AIDS awareness program.
Skills development sessions: theatre workshops, focus group discussions and other fun programs such as music training and games are being held at school sites, to induce more cooperation from the students and management. It is hoped that such skills will help the students themselves campaign for these issues so that they could become agents of change.
Networking and Learning
As part of networking and learning, the Nalamdana team held a few sessions on HIV/AIDS at Aseema's sites and hopes to help their staff team acquire new skills soon through the planned IEC workshop for SIGCI partners in 2007. Some of the Nalamdana team visited the Andhra Pradesh NGOs, GVS and CARE Kuchinerla, during November, 2006. Further cross visits and partnership learning is planned through 2007. The excellent rapport created in these sites is likely to be utilized through 2007, with planned activities and scale up project work.
Some challenges:
1. The time given by institutions such as local schools and colleges, is subject to sudden change due to management concerns, examinations and vacations. Planning the programs needs to be flexible, yet focussed.
2. The actual interventions in the field often expand beyond the intended sessions, due to demand from these vulnerable girls. Topics not directly connected with the project design crop up and these need to be carefully addressed, to keep their interest alive and also to honestly help them face such challenges in their lives (for example: drug addiction, dowry, suicides due to failed love affairs, teenage pregnancy etc.) Nalamdana helps them to access local help and links them to available counseling services offered by partner NGOs.
3. Shortage of funds due to these sudden expansions in work need to be co-funded through generous donors - which we have just about managed through 2006.
Plans for the Future
1. To keep the activities sustained in all four sites.
2. To complete the three month music program in the corporation school (where some 32 children are being trained to present a music program. Songs on Child Rights and girls education have already been written and are being practiced.) A special event is likely to be held in the school around the last week of February 2007.
3. To help the NSS students of MGR Janaki college to perform - after they have gained from the theatre workshop now underway. To also take the QMC theatre group further - more scripts and performances for the rest of the college.
4. To plan a link program between our four sites exploring how these sensitized girls can learn from each other (a research project on this is being planned for 2007- 2008, in collaboration with a young woman media graduate.
5. To plan and help to make a documentary film on our project and also help our partners in documenting their work through professional video film, using our own camera. This may become a separate funded project.
When it comes to empowering girls - sky is the limit!
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