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As an August 2010 Indicorps Fellow, you will create an awareness program that sensitizes the communities of Wanjarwad and Kelwandi to gender issues. You will focus specifically on encouraging girls to stay in school, instilling value for girl children in the community, and developing a campaign to prevent domestic violence.
Initially, you must build rapport with the community. You should attempt to immerse fully in order to gain an understanding of any entrenched gender discrimination practices. To structure the process, you may consider organizing informal community surveys, home visits, and focus groups with women of the community.
Next, you should design a comprehensive program to promote gender equality. You might want to organize information sessions and community events that celebrate achievements of women and girls. Though you should hold periodic community-wide events, you should direct your energy towards programs that target different segments of the community: you should focus on adolescent girls and their parents to increase girl student retention rates, newly married couples to address family planning decisions, and married men and women to tackle domestic violence.
Your programs should aim to empower girls and women and inform them of their legal rights. Most importantly, however, you should attempt to change the culture in the area so that greater value is placed on girls and women. To do this, you should be strategic about forging partnerships with key community members and leveraging their influence to strengthen the impact of the gender sensitization campaign. For example, persuading the Panchayat (village government) to celebrate women’s roles in society could have significant impact on gender inequities. Other influential community members might include elders, priests, and the staff of the local village school.
You will need to be resourceful, creative, and proactive when planning and implementing your programs. For long lasting impact, it is critical that you build sustainability mechanisms into your model. For example, you might consider creating an adolescent girls group where you discuss peer pressure, reproductive health, and legal rights. If you choose to start a girls group, you should simultaneously seek out and train someone from the community to lead the group after you leave.
Target Community:
Wanjarwad and Kelwandi are poor rural communities in Maharashtra. The communities consist of tribals, scheduled castes, landless laborers, and migratory workers. People within the community farm for subsistence; however, since very few of them own their own land, they earn income primarily through cutting sugarcane during the harvest season.
The situation of women in this part of rural India is generally characterized by hard work, both at home and on the farm, primitive hygiene conditions, poor nutrition, little access to health and educational facilities, lack of access to assets, and illiteracy. They are entrusted with the responsibilities of attending to the well being of the family (e.g., nutrition, health), and are yet marginalized in matters pertaining to the upbringing of children and village affairs.
Objectives:
• To foster a culture that promotes gender equality
• To raise awareness of women’s rights with respect to family and education
• To empower local girls and women to meet their potential
Challenges:
• Influencing the collective and individual mindsets of the community members is a long-term process that requires patience, perseverance and commitment
Team-Based Model:
Each project is designed as a three-way partnership between you, Indicorps, and a partner organization. Each grassroots partner organization – in this case WOTR – will be hosting two to four Fellows. Consequently, the August 2010 Fellowship will have both an individual and a team component.
As a team of Indicorps Fellows, your focus is to empower communities to take charge of their own progress and development. Team members will focus on different areas including: enhancing local livelihood opportunities for youth, raising awareness about renewable energy and encouraging gender balanced development.
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