Key projects:

Education Promotion for children of Fishery Community- Swiss Red Cross

This project was undertaken for the underprivileged children of the Fisher community. As the Women folk of the Fisher community started to get themselves engaged in fisheries activities, their children were left behind unlooked for. It came as a major challenge to the community which couldn’t be ignored. The organization in support of its partner agency realised this challenge and started a Creche for the children between 0-10 year. The activities undertaken through the creche were:

• Appointment of 3 trained female for the creche.
• Providing play materials
• Providing basic learning materials
• Providing nutritional food to the kids
• Providing a safe and friendly and learning environment for an overall healthy development of mind and body.

    More than 500 kids benefitted from this initiative.

In addition to the creche for the kids, an Initiative for the young children and adolescents was also started in the form of 20 Non formal education centres in the selected 10 villages of Andhrathari. The main aim of these Non formal education centres were to impart basic elementary education i.e. how to read, write and communicate effectively in addition to the life skill related learning to the children which would help them lead a better quality of life and provide empowerment. A total of 3000 children and youth benefitted from these centres.

Promoting Girl’s education-World Education

The education of a girl is generally considered unimportant and irrelevant in the society, especially so in rural background where anyday preferance is given to the education of boys as compared to girls because boys are looked upon as bread winners whereas girls are put into the perception of only getting married and moving out to the another house and hence being of no good use for carrying out any investment whatsoever in terms of eduction.  But the point that gets missed out in the process is that only when a women is educated, the family  and society can flourish. The organization realised the fact and in partnership with World Education launched a program for promoting girl’s education in 10 villages of Andhrathari block, Madhubani in which 10 non formal education centres are launched, providing education to 500 girl children in the age group 5-18.

The main aim of running this project is to sensitize the community about the need and importance of girl child education and to reduce the cases of trafficking.

Child Friendly Space – SAVE THE CHILDREN

After the kosi disaster, people were highly traumatised as their life had gotten completely derailed and it had left people of all age group in deep trauma. Children were the worst affected as they couldn’t anticipate what their future holds and found themselves in much despair. It had badly traumatised the innocent minds as their source of education and learning seemed hopeless to them.

To divert their mind from the disaster and bring back hope and opportunity in their life, Sakhi took the initiative and Started to work with the support of Save the Children as  Child Friendly Space in the communities i.e. CFS.

We prepared a bamboo house in 20 places of Triveniganj Block which were fully equipped with playing materials for children.

All the 12 CFS are equipped with play materials. CFS started the Registration of  the children . Children have started using play materials and CFS space. Activities started to pick up. As instructed, children are using whatever play materials they want. No distinction has been made according to which children from particular age group could use any particular sports material. During school hours only those children who are not registered in any school or are drop outs or are not going to school are involved in the activity. Rest or the children are participating after school hour or during lunch recess.

At the moment we are concentrating on children getting familiarized with the recreational materials which they did not have the opportunity to find or play. These materials and activities are equally educating and mind stimulating which allows the children to learn while they play.

PROMOTING DIGITAL LITERACY IN RURAL INDIA– TATA TRUST

This project has been launched in the whole of Madhubani district with an objective to educate the rural population in Digital literacy. Literacy status of rural India has improved over time and this offers an even better potential for further literacy Digitally. Digital literacy has become a necessity for all not just urban but rural owing to the fact that the government’s scheme for rural population is all available on internet and can be individually accessed by all. In that case, being dependent on someone in the lack of knowledge, impacts their chances of availing the schemes and its benefits. Most of the times, people don’t even get to know about the schemes since they are not digitally literate. This project creates an opportunity for the rural population to learn the basic nuances of the digital literacy and the schemes and programs available for them. The project aimed at creating a network of 30 SAATHI who would first be trained and then they would further target different panchayats phase wise and make more SAATHIs and provide the training to the masses on their handsets. This project was successful in targeting approx. 126000 population in its first phase. The project is going on in its 2^ndphase and intends to target even more population.  

EMPOWERING GIRLS TO COMBAT TRAFFICKING THROUGH EDUCATION-  MALALA FOUNDATION

Madhubani district is situated on the border of Nepal. The community of this region especially women, girls are less educated. Economic status of the families is too low to lead a better life. Awareness level of community is very low. These reason forces the girls as well as families to get trapped in the vicious circle of trafficking. Families & girls are motivated by middle men showing them lucrative future and monthly income & take them to big cities where these girls were forced to work in the Bunglows or sold to the people engaged in flesh trade. Parents of these girls don’t get to know where these girls are & what they are doing. There are acts & laws for the education of the girls, there are so many promotional schemes for educating girls but none of the schemes has awareness generation program on educating girls on social dynamics, good touch- bad touch, etc.  The community of the region is of primitive mind set due to low education, less income & less awareness so they are not interested in educating girls as they consider it watering plants of others orchard, as they would eventually be married. Girls generally don’t tend to feel the presence of a reliable member in family or in society with whom they could share their issues. The education status in such scenarios takes a back seat and the girls never get an opportunity to use their potential which in turn makes them vulnerable to all sorts of crime like Human trafficking.

The organization realized the issue and intervened in partnership with Malala Foundation to address the issue in five gram panchayats of Andhrathari block, Madhubani targeting 10,000 households.

• Five community centres were setup in the identified panchayats in order to impart education to the girls who were either underprivileged, drop outs or couldn’t attend their regular studies or were a regular absentee from school or for any other reason never could seek education. A total of 533 girls attended these centres on a regular basis.
• Five qualified female teachers were selected through intensive process who would run these centres and act as a facilitator.
• A total 30 empowerment meetings were conducted for girls in the rehabilitation centre and vulnerable trafficking prone communities. These meetings were attended by a total of 2132 girls
• A five-day orientation workshop was conducted for the selected 60 girls and the 5 female teachers from the community who would act as leaders for change and would facilitate the process on various issues around Girl education in their community.
• 10 student’s group consisting of 24 girls in each group was formed in the selected middle/secondry school of the panchayats. These groups were formed in order to conduct regular meetings to sensitise and create awareness on the various issues and way forward.
• A total of 12, One day workshop was conducted in the selected 12 schools of the gram panchayats by the trained facilitators on various issues like gender equality, right to education, child rights, human trafficking, good touch/bad touch, menstrual health and hygiene. The workshop was attended by 900 girls across panchayats.
• In addition to the educational aspect, skill development opportunity was also provided through providing a Stitching and sewing machine in all the centres where the girls could learn the skill and further earn a living for themselves. A total of 100 girls took up the skill course and benefitted out of it.
• On the Occasion of International Girl’s Day 24th January 2020, the girls organised a procession in their panchayat. The girls advocated for the importance of girl’s education, human trafficking, child marriage and gender equality. The police department and education department also participated in the procession which further boosted the confidence of the girls.
• In total 40 street plays were conducted in 40 community places to create mass awareness in the community around the issues of human trafficking, girl education, gender equality, domestic violence, child marriage, child labour.
• 3 Health camps cum counselling camps were conducted for the girls in different panchayats. Qualified practitoners/doctors addressed these camps and provided a free medical health checkup for the girls. Free medicines were also distributed to the girls as per the requirements. More than 508 girls and 152 mothers benefitted from these camps.

• A total of 3 Interface meetings were conducted across panchayats involving the girls, their parents/guardians and the block officials of education/ police department in order to

Discuss the challenges faced and way forward towards girl education.

• One Consultation cum capacity building meeting was organised and attended by 200 relevant stakeholders from various fields like education, health,police and prosecutor department. This Meeting was headed by the District Collector/Magistrate as the chief guest who appreciated the efforts of the girls and the organization and assured for his assistance whenever need be. This gave the project the desired visibility at the district level and boosted the confidence over all.
• One programme wide state networking event was organised in order to exchange best practices, lessons learned and skills amongst other similar organizations in Bihar. The event was attended by 64 participants who were various organisation heads, co ordinators, advocates of patna High court, members of anti trafficking committees like CCHT,CACL Bihar,RTE forum, UNICEF, Caritas, BachpanBachaoAndolan, World Vision India, Adithi, JVI, NSS,IJM, Aga khan Foundation, Centre Direct and Jan Jagran Sansthan amongst the others.
• During the project the girls were also provided with necessary educational books, stationaries, reading materials as well as Sweaters during the winter season as a support towards making the learning process easy and accessible.

Outcome Generated:

• The project had a total target of 2000 girls across five panchayats. The project successfully reached 2132 direct beneficiary.
• The project reached 10,000 household as an Indirect beneficiary from the panchayat
• The project successfully got 160 girls enrolled back to the school and motivated and supported in helping them continue their formal education.
• By the end of the project, the girls showed an improved knowledge, attitude and behaviour change
• 80% of girls have more knowledge about their rights.
• 60% of girls have increased self esteem
• 65% of girls indicate having more life skills.
• 70% of girls know/is able to advocate for their rights