From the lens of a French intern at PUKAR
PUKAR’s “Journey Toward Dignity” (JTD) project is an education programme launched in 2015 which aims at empowering adolescent girls from marginalized communities by breaking myths and taboos surrounding sexuality and gender-related issues. It provides a very comprehensive course, comprising 22 sessions which cover critical topics from pubertal changes to nutrition, menstrual health and hygiene, and gender violence. Through this programme, adolescent girls acquire crucial knowledge about their body and sexuality, thus gaining self-confidence and making informed choices about their body.
OSCAR (Organization for Social Change, Awareness and Responsibility) Foundation is a Mumbai-based NGO which aims at empowering children from low-income communities through football. Their Young Leaders programme provides an opportunity for selected participants to receive a leadership training in development and football skills in order to become football trainers and role models for younger children, and thus agents of social change. Gender equality lying at the heart of OSCAR’s principles, more than half of their Young Leaders being girls.
OSCAR Foundation decided to reach out to PUKAR’s JTD team in order to provide a quality and extensive training to their Young Girl Leaders on growth and development, pubertal changes, nutrition, menstrual health and hygiene and gender violence. This new partnership aims at equipping the adolescent girls with the fundamental knowledge and skills to better tackle gender-related issues with the younger girls and their communities, in order to have a meaningful impact to empower girls and reduce gender inequality.
On August 31, 2019, Tejal – JTD senior programme officer – and Sheeba – project facilitator – went to OSCAR Foundation’s office in the neighbourhood of Fort to conduct the second training session of the six-month programme, focusing on pubertal changes. As a newly arrived intern at PUKAR, I accompanied Tejal and Sheeba as I wanted to experience on the field how the JTD Team delivers its successful programme. Throughout the day, the enthusiastic and curious adolescent girls took active part in workshops and discussions on the complex physical and emotional changes occurring during puberty for both girls and boys. Thanks to the JTD team, the girls felt comfortable voicing their difficulties, concerns and doubts on issues considered taboo. This training also helped thwart misconceptions about puberty, often influenced by gender stereotypes, such as: “girls become more sensitive and boys become more aggressive during puberty”. By the end of the day, the adolescent girls could understand the physical and emotional changes occurring during puberty and thus felt more confident to spread knowledge and awareness among younger girls and their communities .
Victoire Ambeza, intern at PUKAR and
Master student in International Development at Sciences Po Paris (PSIA)
