Project Context
The communities we work with are urban, rural, tribal and forest dwelling in and around the Lower Himalayas. These communities are economically and socially marginalised (rehabilitated and non rehabilitated) and are still encountering challenges of education. As part of our efforts for community ownership and engagement we have been working on building role models - girl youth from the community who can work as rural women education entrepreneurs. These role models for children facilitate access to education with special focus on the girl child. Over the years we have successfully engaged (significant impact during COVID) youth to work with the children. The fellows would be selected on the basis of - motivation, interest and willingness - to work towards the challenges of education locally.
Project Description
The goal is to support those who have an inner passion to work towards individual and social good leading to change using education as a tool. The project will target young girls and women from the rural, tribal and forest dwelling communities in Uttarakhand and UP. These fellows will experience regular mentoring, workshops and training for empowerment leading to decent economic growth by engaging children in education.
The fellowship program is for 6-8 months. The fellowship program provides fellows an opportunity to develop their ideas through mentoring/coaching from dedicated mentors and working on education on a regular basis. Fellows will develop their professional skills and would get access to networks relevant to their idea. They would be supported by a stipend to meet their personal needs during the project period.
Inspiration
Aamna, a 19 year old with a single parent (mother) from the forest dwelling communities has gone on to be the Tata Steel Foundation Samvaad fellow 2021. She has been awarded a project fund with which she is engaging girls for the communities for career enhancement.
Saddam, a 22 year old boy from the community has gone to win the Goonj grassroots fellowship for 2022. He is currently working for rural communities in remote geographies.
Activity Plan
1. Application launch 2. Screening applications, Interviews 3. Call for shortlisted applicants, Confirmation for a 4 day workshop
4. Conduct workshop, Youth fellow submit proposal, Screening of Proposals
5. Awards fellowship
6. One visit to every project, Identify opportunities for fellows, Enable networking, Access to network and local linkages.
7. Peer learning and skill building, Monthly action report 8. Exposure visits 9. 1 X 1 Mentorship, Strong community of fellows
10. Sustainability plan
For more details reach out to samantaconnect@gmail.com
Or visit the link - https://milaap.org/fundraisers/support-van-gujjar-women
Or visit https://www.samanta.org.in/