We recently held our quarterly Organizational Development Committee (ODC) Phase Evaluation, and thought we would share some of the feedback, that got us thinking.  These are the voices of young people who train with us as peer educators and work in the field.We’re grateful, and a little awestruck…

“The fact that every year, TYPF is able to draw such a large fraction of youth to work for causes they feel strongly about and for many, to char out their belief in a particular cause, is proof of the fact that the youth movement is consistently building and is attaching to itself a lot of value. The youth is developing meaningful insights and that’s a large part of the battle won.”

Aditi Malhotra (2011-2012), Silhouette

“I had the apprehension that so many young people would necessarily mean lots of chaos and waste of time. But I saw a lot of time being spent on honing our skills, building upon our strengths and helping us shed our inhibitions and barriers. TYPF did successfully create a space where we learnt to agree, disagree and respect the thoughts of our peers including the children we worked with. This did not at any point mean that we conformed to an idea and passively got moulded into that. There was space to debate, say that ‘No, YP is wrong in that, why can’t we do that or what’s so special in what we do?

I don’t hesitate to go ahead and do that small thing in public. If I want to go ask a passenger who looks sick if he needs something, I will not think of what others may think, or if the person is so strange. I do not think of flimsy barriers of flimsier social ideas that bind us and make us feel helpless when we can do so much.

I don’t judge. No, have to know a person better, give them credit for their work, their ideas, and their courage. I shall never forget the girls at Kilkari. I often see girls who resemble them. I’d like to go back and meet them even after exiting. I can surely facilitate now. I can raise my voice when needed, I feel more powerful. The idea that I can change things, affect things has become a lot more real.”

Munmun Chowdhury (2011-2012), The Butterfly Project

“I was exposed to a different world altogether. I think, post that I feel things are a bit more doable. If I feel that something is not being done right, I am able to pick these things up and do them myself. I think this is possible because TYPF gave me that space, where what I said mattered.”

Rizu (2011-2012), Know Your Body, Know Your Rights

“TYPF has urged me to question normative notions and has been a process of self-development, something which still continues even after my leaving the organisation. I see this manifest in the way I approach new ideas and realize that the true potential of a society where freedom exists is when there is freedom to make informed choices.”

Aditi Annapurna (2011-2012), Know Your Body, Know Your Rights

We are currently in the process of hiring staff at The YP Foundation, for programme and management positions. We are looking for both, young people interested in full time careers with us, as well as experienced professionals and practitioners who have focused interest in overseeing, implementing and evaluating youth led work. There are also part time positions open for young people, who are students or who have alternative commitments.

We’d be extremely grateful if you could forward this to your networks and partners, as well as share this with committed, passionate people who are interested in developing youth led work. Thank you in advance for taking the time to do so, and apologies for cross posting, should that happen. We really appreciate your support.

Go to The YP Foundation Jobs Page for more details.

Warm Regards,
The YP Foundation.

Today, we are 10! We hope to have you join us at ‘10 Years in 10 Days‘! The festival schedule is available here.

*************

A (not-so-little) note from Ishita

“Why sometimes, I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
- The White Queen, Alice in Wonderland.

I think I imagined this moment in many different ways. In some, we had expanded from Delhi to working with young people across both urban and rural demographics, that there existed vibrant, inspired, passionate collectives of youth movements; they spoke their minds, with clarity, with anger, and with commitment. That another world is truly possible, that social change, justice, equity and rights – these are not just words that look good in a development studies textbook. Then I step back into our now office (which still has orange walls) and realize, part of those dreams have started coming true. From using bathrooms, bedrooms and hallways as meeting rooms to an office with 15 of us working full-time. There are so many stories hiding in the corners around here.

10 years later, to the day, we are still standing on those fringe lines, taking on policy change, taking on personal change, challenging our communities and each other. We are now, collectives of youth groups across 18 states, from Jammu to Nagaland to Rajasthan to Chhattisgarh to Tamil Nadu. We speak ten different languages, work in six and have lost and found each other at multiple times, in Gujarat, Orissa, Kashmir, Pondicherry, supporting each other as young people and their families have survived floods, earthquakes and riots.

And it has grown, from such simple things. A video, that strikes home and  inspires a young person to work the next 2 years on ensuring young people know how to file an RTI application, helping 4000 people register for elections in Chhattisgarh and Delhi. A little personal belief, at points and times when life is not being kind, that stops a young boy from jumping off the ledge of a roof at 3am and turns instead, into a project that teaches more than 6000 school children to identify healthy coping mechanisms to deal with issues of peer pressure. A family that decided to share their home, their food and their hearts to 500 young people who were strangers to them, giving 9 years and 3 generations of young people the opportunity to build their own ideas into 350 action projects.

A stint as an Administrative Coordinator that led to establishing an organization that uses music to empower 400 children from diverse backgrounds reaching out to 100,000 people. A motley group of 150 young people, who all understood something about peer pressure, substance abuse and the need to challenge silences on issues of sex and sexuality in public spaces, leading to the country’s first youth-led campaign for Sexuality Education. A speech on the genocide in Godhra, speaking up against a political system that led to the most unusual partnership between a 17 year old girl and a cultural institution. An intimidating lady with piercing green eyes and the wisdom and kindness of the director of one institution, who understood the importance of sharing power not just within but across generations and stepped back. They empowered 5000 young people to research, train, share information and build political analysis, in spaces that were safe, and judgment-free at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi.

We used to be 7 young people, working night shifts at the New Delhi Railway Station, helping children who were hiding, working with the police, sorting blankets with families who had no where to go. I remember the first time I stepped into the train tracks where trains run, wading through uneven stones, garbage, defecation, looking to find one of the children I had been working with, who was hiding from the sheer brutality of a December night and finding one young boy, sleeping underneath the train tracks, between stones. I had never done that before, it shook me to my core. A shared cup of chai later, the 13 year old I had pulled out from between two large stones was the one comforting me.

What does it feel like to spend 10 years of your life doing the same thing? To some, that is a lifetime in itself and to others, notes from a novice. If you ever meet anyone who has worked here, they will say that this is not a job; it’s more a journey. The most challenging unfolding, of youth movements that have grown to work with 60 partner organizations to converge and collaborate to create positive social change. The most incredible friendships, wild disagreements, adopting and discarding multiple identities, discovering and claiming, being feminist, fierce and above all, independent. When you worked here, you owned YP; it was really and truly, yours.

To our 60 partners, we would be nothing without you. To our families and friends, who have put up with not seeing us for weeks, and still been there for every programme, every fundraising target and have wiped tears and disappointments. To Sanjit Bunker Roy and Anu Aga, for challenging young people to do more than speak, introducing us to the fiery leaders in the Children’s Parliament in Tilonia and helping a young girl find her roots, letting all our ideas take flight. To our donors, who have truly understood that this revolution will not be funded, but supported – and have stood by us, resilient. We are very, very grateful to have the strength of your belief in our work.

This revolution has not been about any one person, and that is its beauty and complexity. This matrix is community-led and owned, by changing 10 generations of young people who have met as strangers, and parted friends, handing over a programme that was a little bit stronger and clearer every time, and geared with higher expectations.

To each and every young person who has stepped in with their fire and written the history of this movement in their own way, thank you. I’d like to think that at 10 years, we stand for something in solidarity. That somewhere, learning to work together and learning to work for other people, has changed something deep within most of us. In how we behave as people, the values we hold, the issues we will commit to standing up for, the injustices that we will challenge, deep in the corners of our own personal lives, far beyond TYPF.

A commitment to ensuring that you, your individual life, your voice and your impact – all count for something. You are not forgotten, by this system, by large demographic numbers, or lost between the politics of religion, sexuality, caste, class or gender. Your voice here has always mattered. Your work here is what we are entirely made of. Your friendship and your solidarity, is what has build us into a 350,000 member strong youth organization, that has, in the past 10 years, started and finished more than 350 projects on issues of gender, sexuality, health, education, governance and the arts.

This is the 10 years we had imagined, or rather, wildly hoped for. Thank you YP, for everything you have given all of us. For introducing us to such a fabulous world of people who have gone above and beyond to make sure that young people can build. That young people can truly, lead. For making nothing easy, for pushing us above and beyond each time.  You have been a most complex weaving of personal stories, shared and owned. Someone once asked me, if it’s scary to work in an organization that has had so many people work in it. Because if and when you fail, and we have, multiple times, there are so many people that you’ve let down.

This is possibly YP’s single greatest achievement in 10 years – that there are so many of us who believe in it, who will stand up for it and who will be there for each other, as we stumble, fall down and learn our work better. As we move forward with challenging injustice and inequality and taking a step forward in this amazing journey. What would our epitaph be? Our board member put it best, when she said:

“TYPF was an organization unafraid of change – within itself, and the world around it. It understood ‘change’ in a way that was revolutionary, truly unique to the young person of the 21st century – the era of hustle and bustle, loneliness, terror, fear, forgetfulness, and the individual. Through this definition and understanding of change it enabled literally thousands of young people in India to challenge systems through substance, and create alternatives, which work.

It encouraged an entire generation to work with people and their context, not despite them/ it made thousands of young people aware and active in civil society. It sought justice for the un-empowered productively, without political motive; it rarely made the same mistake twice and bore good will even to those it disagreed with. With its passing we mourn the loss of an organization that understood not everyone finds Wonderland (and when they do, it’s rarely just a tea party), but if you ventured a step behind the Looking Glass, perhaps you’d end up an Alice anyway…”

Imagine the next 10!
With you by our side, we cannot wait to find out.

-
Ishita Chaudhry
Co-Founder & CEO, The YP Foundation

Save These Dates: TYPF@10! There’s Going To Be A Party!

We are turning 10 this year- yes, yes- it’s true! TYPF (or The Youth Parliament as some of you knew it, back in the day) is curating ‘10 Years in 10 Days‘ – A festival that supports youth-led social change in India. We’re bringing together 3000 young people and their families and 30 of our closest partners for two weeks of  citywide madness. And you’re invited

It’ll be an opportunity to reconnect, share stories and generally just have fun Have a look at the festival schedule here. Entry is mostly either pre-registered or by passes, so mail us at 10@theypfoundation.org and we’ll get you the passes you need.

We start on July 20, 2012  and the finale brings us back to where it all started- so save these dates! Date: AUGUST 3rd and 4th, 2012 Time: 7:00PM onwards (both days) Venue: India Habitat Centre, New Delhi Join in for http://www.theypfoundation.org/10-years-in-10-days/ -

We hope you wil be there to celebrate with us!

Cheers!

All of us at The YP Foundation RSVP: 10@theypfoundation.org / +91.11.46702243

Formal Identification. It’s something that’s been in the news quite a lot these past couple of months. What with UID, and every public and private office demanding proof of citizenship and birth, it’s now become more important than ever to have one’s documents in order. Not to mention you need them to vote, to work, even to travel.

Normally, it can be a daunting prospect. Going to government offices, standing in lines, but truth be told, it isn’t that difficult. It has, in the past couple of years, become quite easy to procure identification papers. Here, Garima Sharma, a volunteer with the Right To Information branch of The YP Foundation, outlines a few general steps one can take and be well on their way to Formal Identification.

Children at the Sunder Nagar Nursery, who filed for birth certificates this year.

1. Identify the government department where you can obtain the forms for the required formal identification. If you need help here, shoot us an email at 10@theypfoundation.org and we’re quite happy to help you figure it out.
2. Obtain the form from the government office, or from the internet if accessible. Make sure that the form available online is the latest version, and note down the contact number for the concerned office in case you have any queries later.
3. Fill every space in the form with correct information because it has legal implications. It is always better to clarify all confusion from the government officer beforehand. We find it helpful to keep a photocopy of the form to fill out as draft first, before you finalize the version you need to submit.
4. If a certain piece of information asked for in the form does not apply to you, then write N.A. – Not Applicable. Do not leave it blank. The form must be filled up in a neat legible handwriting.
5. In your case if there are any odd or exceptional circumstances, explain it to the concerned authority honestly. Search for a legal remedy and not ways to hide the problem. Remember, there could be serious consequences if any fact provided in the form is proved false.
6. Understand the supporting documents required and if there is any supporting document you cannot provide, ask the government officer for alternatives. Not many people realize that the government does allow for alternatives, you just need to ask.
7. Get the forms and the photocopies of all supporting documents attested by a gazetted officer of the designation as required by the form. If the form doesn’t specify, ask the government officer to clarify that to you. What’s a gazetted officer? Read here.
8. Once the form is complete, submit it to the concerned authority. The authority may or may not be the same as the one who provided the form. Remember to always carry the original documents along with you at the time of submission, for verification, as well as extra photocopies. Never submit original documents without being 100% sure that these are required. If they are, ask clearly when they will be released back to you and what the procedure for that is.
9. Keep in mind the number of days specified by the government within which you have the right to obtain the form. Make sure to receive a receipt, which specifies the correct date of submission at the time of submission of form and the supporting documents. Unnecessary delay would amount to negligence and can be questioned.
10. The office of the concerned authority should be visited only on working days during the hours specified. Keep a file with these receipts carefully – if you have a problem later on or you need to file an RTI application, formal documentation and records become super important.

For any more information on identification, you can log on to your local state government’s website, or of the magistrate of your zone.

- Garima Sharma & Radhika Mathur, The Right to Information Programme

April 2, 2012, Delhi

Media literacy and Life Skills

When I joined The Butterfly project in 2011, my understanding of the project was limited to just honing of technical skills and imparting the same through the concept of peer-education. What I perceived of media literacy was more of just scripting, composing shots and editing of films and stories.

Kirti Gandhi, Photo: Rachit Sai Barak

I had a very restricted idea of how media and life skills were related, and if they were at all related to each other. But after working with the programme for almost 8 months now, I have realized the relevancy of life skills to media.

Media literacy would not only include composing a digital film or story. Each person interprets a message differently based on age, culture, life experiences, attitudes, values and beliefs which makes it imperative to consider such disparate understandings.  Therefore in order to ensure that the message or idea intended to be communicated is correctly interpreted, it is important to know how to express the idea and how to present it effectively for the target audience to be able to comprehend and appreciate.

A direct link 

Media being a highly creative tool of communication develops creative thinking and also allows critical thinking. It is essentially concerned with developing an informed and critical understanding of the nature of the media, the techniques used, and the impact rendered by those techniques. Also, when a particular story or film puts across an idea or thought, it allows people, who might think differently, to critically examine the idea and further encourages them to form conceptions which may prove to be contrary or similar to the one being communicated. Hence, media helps develop the process of critical examination in people, which not only makes it an effective but a highly persuasive and influential form of communication.

After joining the programme I realised that Media literacy, indeed, has a lot more to it which entails the ability to be able to interpret, analyse and appreciate the language of images and sounds.

Our team at Khushi Rainbow Home for Girls which comprises of me, Gagandeep and Baanie and a group of 10 girls from the Home – Zikra, Blessy, Roni, Shabana, Shabnam, Anmol, Sabya, Kajal, Hameeda and Sabroon, work collectively towards understanding how media makes us more resourceful, not only in terms of the tools and techniques we learn but also, by making ourselves more cognizant of the issues that surround us and affect our lives and of those living around us.

While working in the programme, I have realized what one requires to be able to communicate through any media is not just technical awareness but also cognizance of how media influences and defines our own lives and the communities we live in.

 

Developing an Understanding

The programme emphasizes not only on constructing media but also on creating meaning. The girls at the Home come from different backgrounds and have a deep understanding of the issues which they have seen around themselves. The use of digital stories helps them express reality through their own stories.

Storyboarding by Girls at Khushi, Photo: Rachit Sai Barak

Skills like problem solving, creative and critical thinking, awareness and sensitivity towards the issues of the communities the girls live in and ability to communicate these to the outside world, which the girls develop during the process, enables them to address & advocate for change and consequently become active participants in society.

 

 

The goal is to make the young girls we work with exercise their full right to expression. We envision the girls feeling empowered and safe enough to express themselves and use media to analyze, access, evaluate issues they feel passionate about. We hope that the media they create through this process strengthens their voices and encourages them to speak out loud. 

It would be appropriate to assume media literacy as a process of self-discovery, recognizing and channelizing the innate talent present in each one of us. The programme not only enables us to broaden our perspectives but further sensitizes us to the various tools and techniques that can be used to express and voice our opinions.

- Kirti Gandhi, Peer-educator, The Butterfly Project

The Butterfly Project is a Digital Storytelling program that works with 20 boys (aged 13-20) and 25 girls (aged 13-20) from vulnerable backgrounds; and 14 peer educators from the National Capital Region (NCR) at the Ummeed Home For Boys, Khushi and Kilkari Rainbow Home for Girls, run by ‘Dil Se Campaign‘ (Managed jointly by our partner organizations, the Center For Equity Studies and Aman Biradari).

The peer educators – Mudit, Shaman, Ishan and Garima work at Ummeed Home for Boys with Armaan, Salmaan, Ramzan, Akshay, Sukhbir, Sanah Ullah, Sukhdev, Raja, Ismail, Vijay, Rohit, Rahul, Suraj, Fahim, Chand, Ameer, Sameer, Rakesh and Raju.

The peer educators – Munmun, Saral, Natasha, Meghna and Vidhi work at the Kilkari Rainbow Home for Girls with Sonam, Ameena, Basanti, Rihaana, Ruksaana, Kajal, Sonia, Nikita, Puja Raju, Puja Manoj, Manju and Mona.

To follow the other blog of The Butterfly Project, Click here.

To read about the ‘Dil Se Superstars’ Programme, Click here.

United Nations High Level Meeting on Youth

 July 2011, New York

Recently, The YP Foundation conducted 12 consultations for the National AIDS Control Organization in India, in partnership with Plan India, consulting young people for recommendations to best address HIV prevention education. We did this with 280 young girls and boys from 5 states and in one community center, I got asked a question by 21 year old young man in a group discussion that really struck me. “Is sex an illness? Do we get sick from it? What’s the difference between HIV and sex?” Recently, a 19 year old boy who is a peer educator with us asked another question, he said -

‘How do you identify the difference between consent and violence if you don’t know what sexuality is? If I don’t know how to recognize what is acceptable and normal within me, if I can’t accept and celebrate the differences in myself, how do I know how to reach out for help, when I do need it and whom to go to?’

In India, 78% of young people under the age of 20 do not know how to have safe sex. What is of key concern is the lack of safe spaces for young people at the community level to address concerns and access evidence based, non-discriminatory, comprehensive information, that encourages boys to question their privilege, their assigned gender roles and masculinity and act in ways that are responsive to respecting women and girls’ human rights, particularly in the realm of sexuality in order to achieve gender equality.

What did we do?

Founded 9 years ago, Project 19, also known now as ‘Know Your Body, Know Your Rights‘ (KYBKYR), is a youth led and -run peer education, capacity building and advocacy programme at The YP Foundation that works with young people in communities and with policy makers to address gender equality, violence against women, sexual rights and reproductive health. Through training young people in communities on the principles of human rights and gender equality, we have reached over 1500 – 3000 young people each year, focusing on building skills in understanding and negotiating relationships, questioning power, acting with consent, the negotiation of safe sex and respecting sexual and reproductive choice.

What has the response been?

Although male participants were initially most interested in factual/biological information (e.g., the human body, sex, HIV), over time we found that sessions on gender-related attitudes, sexual violence, and power dynamics between men and women eliticited the most interest. Most male participants could relate these conversations and participated with examples from their own lives, which is a key component to ensuring that peer education and information dissemination actually result in behaviour change.  When asked about the impact of participation at a later stage in the programme, majority of young men noted that the sessions had changed their understanding of love and sexuality and taught them to question notions of masculinity.

Integrating boys and girls into skillfully facilitated safe spaces has proven critical to examining gender and power relations between them. This does, more often than not, lead to a full understanding of gender equality and helps boys internalize principles to examine their own behaviors, challenge those of others that are sexist, towards being respectful in relationships.

The process has to be personal, for it to resonate with young men and boys. So the challenge is not just how they engage in gender justice and gender equality but also whether they have the tools to take this conversation home to challenge their own elders or caregivers. Often, in more traditional, conservative and/or religious societies, there is a backlash to this that needs to be taken into consideration.

Additionally, there is a lack of access to sexual and reproductive health services that respect diversity, provide confidentiality and a quality of care – mostly because these don’t exist at ground level and youth friendly health services (YFSE) don’t integrate comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) into their services. This is important, because what young men and boys need is evidence based, scientific information that is available freely in out-of-school, community settings. This challenges an environment that young men are brought up in, where more often than not, there are community attitudes that teach men and boys that it is wrong to admit they have fears or questions regarding their bodies.

What is success?

• Integrating spaces for young men and young women– It is critical to still keep a safe and an equal space for both sexes to clarify concepts – but to have young women challenging young men – is also changing the power dynamic and how it works. It would be prudent to integrate into these spaces that there are many young people’s whose sexual orientation and gender identities do not fit neatly outlined gender boxes, and that addressing the needs of LGBTQ young people, in the context of power, violence and access to information is a critical part of this dialogue. Young people do not live isolated lives and it is critical to have individual and collective spaces that build safety as a binding factor at community levels.

The key feedback we get in communities is how many men and boys are struggling with the expectations and aspirations of being what is called ‘a real man’, a stereotypical, largely mythical cultural figure that expresses limited emotions, is handsome, strong, muscular, and virile. We noticed an increase in the number of growth hormones and supplement drugs that young men experiment with and access, the pressure to be in sexually active relationships with women that is considered to be a cultural sign of virility and the lack of understanding of sexual rights, particularly women’s sexual rights. With an approximate 150 boys we’ve engaged as peer educators, we’ve noticed a diametric change at the end of a 1-year participation programme.

The key feedback we receive is that they are able to challenge the ‘shame and embarrassment’ that is perceived and experienced and that they are able to freely ‘talk about issues of sexuality and bodily integrity and rights’, particularly with male peers. Boys also discover that the insecurity they experience is something that is a common and real experience and that they are not alone. The kinds of attitudes that change are reflected in the feedback that we receive in the programme from young boys below:

• Training adults – teachers, religious leaders, parents and community members on the importance of challenging male privilege – The rhetoric currently globally, on how critical it is to engage young people in a meaningful way often doesn’t look at how critical it also is not to isolate young people from their communities. We need to give young people the tools and language to negotiate these relationships so that they can challenge and change traditional gender roles in their societies. It doesn’t help when we empower young people with information but cannot help them work through situations of conflict or stress with family and care givers, in our trainings with them. Aahung, a Karachi-based non-governmental organization that has been working to improve the sexual health of men, women, and adolescents since 1995, does this, advocating with individuals within policy and educational systems, so as to look at a systemic change that also creates gender equal and equitable policy in the first place.

• Using diverse mediums of expression and being innovative – Theatre, dance and music are three of the most successful ways in which we have communicated with young people and they have worked with each other. Apart from the obvious, that art (both visual and performing) makes it easier to work with a diverse group of young people who may not have similar linguistic skills or cultural experiences. We now have boys leading local campaigns that advocate for women’s rights and they work as peer educators in their own communities. It is easier, we’ve found, to reach out to boys in communities than it is to single them out in school or formal settings. The YP Foundation’s programmes have flourished, using these strategies.

• Increasing awareness on HIV and STI prevention, addressing homophobia and the context and impact of both gender based violence and violence against women – there is a level of critical analysis that needs to be built into dialogues with young boys and men so that they can examine the impact of violence in their own lives and in the lives of women and girls around them. The need to eliminate violence against women needs to be internalized and boys need to make a conscious decision not to inherit and adopt patriarchal attitudes.

• Promote youth led work in this area and encourage youth-adult partnerships – Sharing good practises and strong programmes has always strengthened a movement and in that spirit, excellent programmes like ones run by the Center for Health and Social Justice and Men’s Action for Stopping Violence against Women (MASVAW) in India were initiated in 2002. A statewide movement in Uttar Pradesh, this campaign with men and boys promote gender equality, and advocates for equal rights and a violence free world for women. Similarly, Sonke Gender Justice Network in South Africa has popularized the adage – that one man can. Stop violence, reduce HIV and empower women.

In the same spirit, simply focusing on men and boys and spending majority of our programmatic funding there, on the hope that men and boys take lead or charge in their communities and that their attitudes will trickle down to women and girls who live with them – creates a lopsided strategy. One where the male gender is educated and empowered, in a position where they usually experience a higher level of privilege than women. Women and girls need to have equity in their lives and communities – be on equal footing, so to speak – to challenge the very same hierarchies that hold them down.

Where is the money in gender equality for women and girls? What percentage of your programme – should you have or support one – supports women and girls versus men and boys as beneficiaries? Where are young women and girls in our communities – are they speaking up, are they empowered to participate? It is undoubtedly difficult, but necessary to reflect and work on these questions.

Lastly, programmatically, engaging adolescent boys and young men successfully needs to capitalize on the age group it’s working with – starting from as young as 6 years old – address gender equality through sexuality education using a life cycle approach. It takes years to challenge and change behaviour and it begins with when we are young and still learning what gender neutral and rights based behaviour is.  Girls’ Power Initiative in Nigeria has been leading some of this change since 1993.

A comprehensive package that can address gender equality provides five critical elements that address:

• Psycho-social and emotional aspects
• Sexuality
• Promotion of equity
• Overcoming stigma and discrimination and promoting human rights
• How to protect and promote one’s health

Achieving gender equality asks for investing in and engaging men and boys, yes. However, this cannot and should not replace investments in girls and women’s empowerment. CSE provides the effective opportunity of working with both young men and women jointly.

   To end with a voice that isn’t mine, but is of a young man back home who I’m proud of -

“I could have never spoken to girls about issues like wet dreams before I never thought that a girl would be able to help me answer these questions. I guess our bodies are normal things; we just aren’t brought up to feel that way. No one questions why my father is considered to be the head of the household and why even in subtle ways my sister and I are treated differently. We get used to the power that comes from violence; we internalize and accept it. I think in my generation we need to work with girls like my sister and change that.” 

Ishita Chaudhry, is the founder and CEO of The YP Foundation and an Ashoka Fellow. She shared these views at the High Level Meeting on Youth recently in July 2011 in New York at the UN Headquarters, speaking on a panel co-organized by UNICEF and UNFPA.

Header: Photographer: Rachit S Barak

19 July 2011

Overview: The YP Foundation’s work with empowering young people through the ‘Know Your Body, Know Your Rights’ programme, that especially focuses on women and girls in addressing violence against women and HIV prevention through sexuality education has recently been profiled and published in the new UNAIDS and Athena Network Publication entitled, ‘Community Innovation’. You can download the publication from the link here.

On the periphery of the IAS 2011 conference taking place in Rome from 17-20 July 2011, UNAIDS in collaboration with the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS (GCWA), ATHENA, Salamander Trust, WECARe+ and Network Persone Seropositive convened a town hall dialogue to discuss how the HIV response facilitates the achievement of sexual and reproductive health and rights for all women, including women living with HIV, at every stage of their lives.

For women living with HIV stigma and discrimination and gender-based violence acutely affect their access to comprehensive services and human rights. Within health services, they often face a lack of choice with regard to family planning; disapproval from service providers with regard to meeting sexuality and fertility desires; and violation of their sexual and reproductive rights in the form of coerced or forced abortion or sterilization. Participants agreed that advancing the health and rights of women in all their diversity is fundamental to the success of the HIV response, just as the HIV response is a critical avenue for achieving sexual and reproductive health and rights for women.

The event was also used as a platform to launch a report Community Innovation: Achieving sexual and reproductive health and rights for women and girls through the HIV response. Compiled by UNAIDS and the ATHENA Network, it presents case studies pioneering community undertakings to advance women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights through the HIV response and vice-versa, from different community perspectives. This report recognizes that women face unique challenges to access and fulfil their sexual and reproductive health and rights, including gender-based violence, and therefore have less access to HIV prevention, care and support services.

“Women and girls at every level and throughout different stages of their lives must be supported to demand quality services that meet their needs and those of their community,” said UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director, Programme, Dr Paul De Lay.

Learning from these community case studies is an opportunity to enhance the AIDS response, in light of the Millennium Development Goals and the 2011 Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS. The case studies indicate that for responses to be effective they must include the empowerment and inclusion of women in all their diversity, dedicate attention to sexual and reproductive health, including improvements in maternal and child health, and address the socio-cultural practices underlying gender inequality.

UNAIDS Getting to zero: strategy 2011-2015 also places gender equality and human rights as one of three core pillars. This report is part of that commitment to ensuring that women and girls’ rights are met through the HIV response and it was undertaken in the context of the UNAIDS Agenda for accelerated country action for women, girls, gender equality and HIV.

“UNAIDS continues to be a strong advocate for women’s health and rights, as well as to strongly stand against stigma and discrimination amongst all marginalized groups. We will continue to do so until we have achieved the vision of zero discrimination,” said Dr De Lay.

- Nitika Khaitan and Aastha Mathur

Photos by Nikhil Singhal

Three times a week, from November to February, a group of 10 college students would take time out of their busy schedules. They would land up at the Ummeed Aman Gharana (Run by our partner organisation, Centre for Equity studies) near Qutub Minar; armed with digital cameras, 2-page lesson plans and emotions that ranged from excitement to apprehension. Then, they would get down to business.

An outsider observing the barren field in the Home, from 5 PM every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday would have seen a remarkable change. One by one, 25 children would start abandoning their elaborate games and tyre swings, disappearing into a classroom lit by a few electric tube lights. There, he/she would have observed the same college students, playing, working and interacting with the children at times with patience and love and at times in utter bewilderment.

All of this was part of one big (clinically insane) idea – take a group of children, who’d never held a camera in their hands before and in 3 months, turn them into movie directors.

Not quite like Professor Higgins quest to turn Audrey Hepburn, a flower girl from the dirt and grime of London’s streets into a refined lady of the royal household; our motives, of course, were different- we believe  in Article 19 written by our nation’s forefathers –“All Indian citizens have the right to freedom of speech and expression.” But we also questioned, ‘What significance could that possibly hold for those who didn’t have the means to speech and expression?’ And that’s when we applied to participate in the ‘Adobe Youth Voices’ program, run in partnership with The Global Fund for Children, which provided us with all the technical help we needed to work with the children through a medium of communication as powerful as film.

That belief and the need to answer that question is what kept us alive through day-long training sessions where we struggled with developing editing skills, the horrendous traffic jams we valiantly endured to reach our destination and of course, all the red tape that The YP Foundation convinced us was absolutely essential (it was only at the end that we realized they were right).

Even more monumental was the challenge of (as our 3 Year Strategic Plan so eloquently puts it) ‘bridging the gap.’ Our whole idea depended on the assumption that children with life stories we’d only witnessed in versions of films like ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ would open up to us and actually learn what we wanted to teach them. To our utter bewilderment, they did actually want to learn with just a tiny difference: when we said ‘digital stories’, they heard ‘Bollywood films.’

Session by session, they finally understood the difference and made their peace with the idea that they wouldn’t be filming song-and-dance routines but instead, would be telling a different story, one of ‘meri kahaani, meri zubaani.’ We use the phrase ‘made their peace’ because they didn’t actually think their life stories were interesting enough to be told. Mind you, they are, in fact, extraordinarily interesting.

With more sessions (on scripting and storyboarding), they also (finally!) opened up to us – giving us an insight into their likes, dislikes, hobbies, the importance of education and their aspirations – which invariably involved earning lots of money and then giving back a lot of the same money to people growing up just like them; a selfless aim missing in many of us growing up today.

Missing in so many of us today is the belief in ‘living for the moment.’ Pure unadulterated happiness, a sense of profound wonder and awe at holding a camera in their hands, a broad excited grin at the mere sight of crayons and a blank sheet of paper. They would observe silently, play noisily, listen patiently, enquire impatiently, participate enthusiastically in activities and reluctantly listen to lectures, critically examining what we said yet also unquestioningly accepting our big idea as worth their while.

The end result of this process? Well, as some wise guy said, ‘Knowledge is Power’. If in the future, they want to share their stories, they’ll know how to do it. If in the future, they want to work with a camera, they’ll know how to handle it. If in the future, they want to work in a group, they’ll know how to accommodate other’s opinions while forming their own. If in the future, they want to just reach out and express their thoughts, they’ll know how to use an incredibly powerful medium to do it.

As for us, the core group of volunteers working on this- our initial emotions of apprehension turned to amazement at the children’s incredible capacity to retain what we taught them, then to excitement at the thought of playing and learning with the kids and finally, pride – at our kids, who now understand not only lighting, camera angles and the manual mode on a DSLR, but are confident, vocal and unafraid to express their ideas and ambitions.

And that, for those of you who patiently read this up till this point, was our big clinically insane idea.

To read more about our Digital Media Partnership with the Global Fund for Children, click here. The project, run in partnership with the Center for Equity Studies will continue in 2011 – 2012, scaling to work with an additional 25 children and 15 peer educators, ensuring that 25 children who graduated from our 2010 class continue to work with digital equipment in an enhanced media programme. Watch this space, as we release the final films of our 2010 Class of Superstars!