– Radhika Mathur, Right to Information Branch

While we lie comfortably in our cushioned beds of our bourgeois households, there’s a continuous struggle in the larger world. By this struggle, I’m not referring to the popular and remarkable, larger struggles of society of ‘fast unto death’ to get a Parliament bill passed in a democracy or a ‘Pride Parade’ against the discrimination faced in the country on the basis of one’s sexual identity. It is a much smaller and an everyday struggle within the realm of another household to secure the most fundamental prerequisites for what can be called an ordinary life.

It is a universal assumption that democracy is the best form of governance. Winston Churchill, the British Prime Minister during the Second World War era, shared his opinion on democracy to the world – “It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried.” As the latter school of thought believes, with our options otherwise running out, democracy is the last form of governance in the contemporary world.

In India, we are privileged to have the right to choose our representative in Parliament.But is that all democracy means, the availability of this right? Most of us don’t end up exercising all the rights guaranteed to us by the Constitution in our lifetime. For instance, when awareness on the Right to Information Act, (2005) was mapped in the country in the year 2008 by the National Campaign for People’s Right to Information (NCPRI), the result supported my statement – only 2% young urban people were aware of the act.

However, on the other end of the tunnel, there are people in our urban locality who feel the need to exercise their rights but go through open harassment for desiring the same. Democracy at this level begins to sound synonymous to hypocrisy.

The Right to Information Branch of The YP Foundation aims to increase young people’s sensitivity towards the issue of information and awareness of laws and policies in India, provide them with the resources to review and work on ensuring the implementation of laws and policies, thereby increasing their participation in processes of governance, ensuring a transparent and accountable government.

During 2010-2011, we attempted to give the central Right to Information Act, 2005 relevance by means of applying the act to laws and policies associated with the areas of gender, sexuality, arts, education and health. One of the focus areas was enabling our children and the families we work with at the Nizamuddin Basti, through our street children project, ‘Blending Spectrum’, access Free and Compulsory Education, in accordance with the 2009 act. Our main agenda was to get our children enrolled into schools, and while working toward this we faced numerous challenges for supporting the “economically weaker sections” of society, to use the official terminology-Using the expression “Economically weak” to give these families an identity is enough to gauge societal perceptions toward the same.

For a child to be able to access Free and Compulsory Education there are a list of documents that need to be submitted to schools, ranging from Birth Certificates, Family Income Proof, Family Ration Cards( including the child’s name). We decided to assist our community with registration of ration cards- to serve the dual purpose of identity proof as well as income proof. We took the families to the concerned Ration Card office, where the officials were impolite and rude in their responses to the families. The community has never received any information on schemes they are eligible to apply for, and when there is a level of questioning, it is met with impatience and frustration.

Ration card registrations are running in the country for every economic bracket, except Jhuggis (slums). While admission dates in schools are drawing to a close the community we work with has to wait for the government to announce their new policy for the Jhuggis (slums) and the time period within which these have to be registered. An officer at the Ration Card Office blankly stated to a community member “there’s definitely a change in the system if you are allowed to step inside the big schools now, it’s a privilege for you.” Did the officer have any right to conclude, for these families, what their privilege is?

Most ration cards in the community we work with, got cancelled without any prior notice or any stated reason only to find out the new policy requires bi-metric (thumb impression) printing. If these families were given prior notice by the government, the cancellation of ration cards could have been avoided. But at the moment, till the new policy is announced, their cards are invalid, leaving the BPL card holders in the lurch, yet again.

The social stereotyping and prejudices against EWS families don’t just victimize the adults, but shockingly enough, also the children. Under Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, private schools are instructed to reserve 25% seats for EWS families, but these schools only need excuses to deny admission to these families. Even when we managed to help a family get their child enrolled into a private school for regular morning classes, the mother is being called to school almost every day with warnings of suspension of the child from the school. Is it wrong for a child, unknowing at the age of six towards societal and economic differences, to desire to feel included and to play with his classmates?

The mother is threatened, and is being made to feel obliged toward the school for enrolling her child, from a EWS family. Must we feel indebted for the fulfillment of our own due rights? An official from the school administration office opened up to her “If we have people ready to pay heavy donations to let their child sit in the class, why should they favor somebody who’s enjoying free admission and education?”

Is the Right to Equality in India really achieved in its absolute sense?

There is a dire need to step out of our convenient middle class lives, to realize the tribulations one has to face on the other side of the world. Indian democracy is not that a rewarding place to be in. Perceive the world through their eyes to see how inconvenient living in urban spaces is. The natural tendency of the middle class thinking is to be indifferent about governance issues, until it directly affects them. Think again – Is there really no need to understand, disseminate awareness on and influence policies? Or should we continue living within our comfort zones pretending the world outside is invisible?

Picture Used – Artwork by Ishita Sharma

- Sumaya Saluja, Programme Coordinator

Blending Spectrum began in 2007, on the basis of 3 realizations:

1. There was, and still is, a divide that sections young people into two, i.e. ‘privileged’ and ‘underprivileged’ sections.
2. There are many organisations working on child rights but there exists to date, a lack of sharing of resources, on being able to learn from our collective successes and challenges from the field and the effective tools for implementation that exist amongst us.
3. Young people have the time and the skills to be able to work with other young people on sharing knowledge, skill and resources.

It started out as a fairly simple process. We brought together young people from schools and colleges to work with urban street and slum children across the NCR at three locations - the New Delhi Railway Station, a home for the orphaned and the abandoned run by a partner NGO, and at the Nizamuddin Basti (an urban settlement of a community of rag pickers at large), which was inhabited by 30 families.

Over the past five years, we have progressively increased our involvement with these 250+ children, from providing material resources to help with clothing and shelter, to  getting the children into school and helping them with their academics and homework, to finally implementing a Life Skills based education model. The focus is on empowering the community to realize their rights through raising awareness on health, socio cultural and civic issues; building their communication, interpersonal critical thinking skills; developing self management and coping mechanisms while assisting the children in their access to and progress in formal schooling.  The approach has involved using interactive mediums such as theatre, dance and art, through a peer to peer educational approach. Three years into the programme, the Global Fund for Children came on board to support the programme as has the NGO Dream A Dream in 2010, as our Curriculum Development Partners.

We learned from the responses given and feedback received from the children and their parents and have developed a response based on what the community identified as their needs. With time and continuous interaction, our understanding of these issues have strengthened, as have our ties with the community.

In 2010, we looked at refining our monitoring and evaluation systems for the programme, including a student-based and youth-led evaluation of the programme. The process has been challenging, both within the organization and with our stakeholders and there are still many things we are trying to grasp. Securing multi year funding? Ensuring communications support to the community? Engaging in advocacy and policy work on Child Rights? Mapping behavioral change in children? Sourcing Ration Cards for families to get access to formal schooling in private institutions?

There are challenges, like everywhere else, but they also contain solutions and lessons. This is what I have learned from my work with 180 children and 70 young people over the past two and a half years on essentially, what works:

1. If you’re working with children, make it FUN. They like the same things that you liked when you were their age.
2. Give them the rationale behind an instruction you are giving them, like you do with adults. They might just listen to what you said. Plain do’s and don’t get a nod, not behavioral change and no child like to be infantilized.
3. There are a lot of manuals and materials out there. What you need when working on Life Skills with children is to know the children first and then see what manual and approach works. No one manual has worked for us. Each year we have adapted our modules to the specific needs of the children we work with. A manual by itself is very different from a location and the context you are working in.
4. Feedback forms with children don’t work immediately or in many cases. Individual interviews using media such as video or photography with and by people children are comfortable with and art activities, however, do. The strongest modus operandi to learn and no surprises there, is learning through playing.
5. Don’t ask a child “aacha laga ya nahi? (“Did you like it or not?”). Simple questions will get you simplistic answers and they will usually always say “yes”. If you need feedback, give them time and different tools (creative mediums like music and art work well) to be able to reflect and do so individually.
6. It is important to give both child and peer educators space and time to reflect on their learnings and for the programme team to understand what this learning has been.
7. It is helpful to have someone minute/document during sessions/workshops, to ensure all feedback and questions are documented. It is understandable that you may not remember all the questions you were asked by the children you’re working with, but the children do remember, so it is important to have tools available that ensure that nothing is lost due to the understandable 40% retention of the human mind. Write it and don’t forget to follow up.
8. Always be prepared. Children like lesson plans and learn from them better when you know what you are doing.
9. Building trust takes time. They are used to be speculative and untrusting and you have to prove yourself to them. It’s ‘Guiltily until proven innocent’, so be patient and persistent.
10. Don’t assume what children are capable of. Give them a chance to surprise you. More often than not, they are smarter than we field educators ‘assume’ them to be.
11. The peer educator/volunteer’s behaviour, conduct and actions on location are more important than what they say. The children are observing you as soon as you step in.
12. Follow up on the habits you wish them to develop. For example, if you want them to wash their hands then ask them to do so before and after every activity. One doesn’t need a separate activity highlighting the importance of washing hands, children learn best by doing.
13. ‘Do, see, hear’ is the best approach for training volunteers or teaching children. For example, if the child is to draw a road, while he/she is colouring clarify the colours on a red light, zebra crossing etc, instead of beginning the workshop with a presentation from your side. Make the child an active participant, someone who can also lead the learning process.
14. Smaller the group, more effective is the learning. 1 volunteer to 5 children is the maximum ratio that has worked for us.

You may already know all of this, the main point with working with children is that there is no one strategy or method that works. It begins with meeting, talking, but above all, listening. Once you do have a relationship with the children you work with, based on good communication and a foundation of trust, you’ll know what will work and what won’t and that will remain fluid as both you and the children will continue to grow and change. Above all, if you don’t understand something, a child has said or thinks, ask them.

Join us for a cocktail reception to meet Ishita Chaudhry and learn more about The YP Foundation’s work and sustaining youth led movements

February 10, 2011
6:30 – 8:00pm
Change.org
1825 K Street, NW, Suite 825
Washington, DC 20006

Suggested Minimum Donation: $25.00

With a core focus on supporting and enabling young people to create programs and influence policy in the areas of gender, sexuality, health, education, the arts, and governance, The YP Foundation’s mission is to promote, protect and advance young people’s human rights in India by building leadership and strengthening youth led initiatives and movements. Founded in 2002 by Ishita Chaudhry at the age of 17, The YP Foundation has worked directly with 5,000 young people over the last 8 years, training them as peer educators for more than 200 projects in India.

The YP Foundation believes in empowering young people’s access to information, services and rights such that they can build collective platforms to challenge and develop their leadership potential and impact positive social change. They empower young people by supporting their work through three key focus areas of awareness and advocacy, community partnerships and programs and communications and skills development.

Please join us to learn more from Ishita Chaudhry about how her organization has reached 300,000 children, adolescents and young people between the ages of 3-28 years and what more can be done to support the largest ever generation of young people.

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

Please click here to RSVP for the event and include your first and last name for security purposes.

To donate to the YP Foundation, please click here. ***Be sure to indicate that your gift is in honor of “TYPF-Project 19” in the name field.

Suggested minimum donation is $25.00 to attend the event. Gifts of any size are welcomed and tax-deductible. If you can’t attend, please still consider making an online donation to this important work. Please make checks payable to IWHC and write “TYPF-19” in the memo section of check.

For more information, please contact the event hosts, Melinda Fox and Jennifer Redner at 202-669-7764.

The Open House Series is an interactive, multi year workshop series for interested, upcoming and established young artistes that explore information, ideas and models that protect promote and publish Independent Music in India.

The Open House Series encourages an exchange of resources between existing artistic talent and a newer generation of artists of different age groups, experience levels and musical styles. The programme aims to provide young people, specifically artists and students working with/interested in the field of independent music with training and skill development opportunities. The series begins in January 2011 and will culminate in July 2011.The programme will undergo a 2-month evaluation post this,and begin its second programmatic cycle in mid 2011 – 2012.

Rationale:

There are multiple challenges faced by young people as well as amateur artists with trying to establish and build sustainable careers in Independent Music in India.

Many amateur artists often don’t have adequate knowledge to help them create a career and sustain themselves and are unable to afford, access, or are unaware of international or existing local resources that could train them to do so.

There is a lack of shared knowledge amongst younger artists on issues such as promoting and developing their work in music, accessing and developing large scale or new audiences, exploring non performance career options in music and there is limited existing knowledge on the legal aspects of working with the arts, particularly intellectual property rights.

Educational institutions (schools/colleges etc) are unable to provide students with the resources/training required to support a career in the field of music in India.

There is a lack of cost effective training forums, for young people desiring to pursue arts management. Existing performance spaces in the NCR are limited to venues such as pubs and bars, which limits a younger audience’s access to music.

Speakers:
Shubha Mudgal, Aneesh Pradhan, Vishal Dadlani (Pentagram), Uday Benegal (Indus Creed), Anup Kutty (Menwhopause), Mandar Thakur (Times Music), Prithwish Dev, Clarence Gonsalves, Gucci Singh, Surojit Dev (Them Clones), Gaurav Vaz (The Raghu Dixit Project), Anindo Bose (Advaita), Jishnu Das Gupta (Swarathma), Sahil Makhija (Demonic Resurrection), Neysa Mendes, Vijay Nair, Bobby Talwar (Only Much Louder), Arjun S Ravi (Indiecision), Vijay Kate, Shiv Ahuja, Abhish Mathew (HIT 95 FM),

Programme Partners:
Furtados, Hard Rock Cafe,Radio One, Underscore Records, Max Mueller Bhavan,The India Habitat Centre, Bluebells School International, Bridge Music Academy, Only Much Louder, Nh7.in, The Underground.in.

Venue Partners:
Max Mueller Bhavan, India Habitat Center

Media Partners:
Radio One, MTV Noise, NH7, Indiecision, Underground.in

Registrations are on a first come first serve basis. Register now for workshops on music promotion, production, marketing, Protection and Education.

For registrations and schedule – http://theopenhouseseries.posterous.com/

Follow us on facebook! – http://www.facebook.com/OHseries

It’s Water.

Plain cold water that allows you to jump and splash, that gets you so wet that you get goose bumps, get refreshed and don’t care about language or age, you have fun.

After much deliberation at Blending Spectrum, we decided to have a day of pure fun, and introduce paints to the children we work with. It’s a big achievement for us in the project. We NEVER take paints. But the simple logic of water+ paints+ fun+ colour = us won out. We also had interns Hannah and Jess work with us from the University of Birmingham observing how we taught life skills and crafting geography lesson plans for class. Taking a break with colours seemed like a super fun and slightly ridiculous idea.

Blending Spectrum is a project that connects urban young people through a peer-to peer community interaction with street and slum children with the aim of increasing sensitivity between street and slum children and the urban youth. Blen Spec, as we affectionately call it, provides healthcare and non-formal education (including Life Skills Education), building the potential of children with limited access to opportunities.

The project works in two locations, the Nizamuddin Basti and the Umeed Home for Boys with partner Aman Biradari in South Delhi respectively. Blending Spectrum currently supports over 130 street and slum children. In the past two years, we have supported 110 children transition into mainstream education by equipping them with basic knowledge of Math and English, with a 0% drop out rate. Blending Spectrum is currently supported in part by the Global Fund for Children.

Coming back to paints. I don’t know whether I was shocked or surprised by the way children reacted to the paints. I have never seen them so engrossed in class, beautifully attempting to draw something on their white sheets. Usually it’s the battle of crayons and rolls of sheet thrown about. This was completely different. Maybe it was due to Hannah and Jess, with whom they interacted really well with, or the charm of the paints, or the artists within each of them. I have no clue. By the end of the day, we got completely wet and I discovered that it didn’t matter whether it was paint or water.

Children love you more when you are not afraid to have fun.

- Chandini Gochhayat

Language. A barrier.

“Is this your first time at Nizammudin? Will you come again?”
Their first questions and I can’t answer.

Still, taking the hand of a little girl, we’re soon singing our way to the park outside Humayun’s Tomb. Gathered on a hillock, Chandini didi rallies the troops and when their raucous squeals crescendo to an unbearable pitch, Chandini emits a scream that outdoes theirs and shocks them into obedience.

I observe the ‘energising exercise’ from behind the camera. It is peaceful here – almost safe.

But soon paint pots are distributed and painting day begins. It looks too fun to miss out on, so I relinquish my role as observer and join a circle of artists. I love getting paint on my hands. Our pallet is bright and soon I have scribbled a cluster of trees under a sunny sky. Another painter, who poses to be photographed with her artwork, soon claims my picture.

The boys are playing with a football and I fold a paper aeroplane for them. We chase the ball and the plane into the waterlogged grass. I look around. Our elation has attracted a gaggle of spectators – all smiling as though they are living the fun we are having. And soon the paints are abandoned in favour of spouting water, splashing games and children cleaning up.

Water – pure life, pure fun. Later a young man approaches the volunteers. He wants to volunteer too. He sees how rewarded we feel, realizes the importance of the child, seeks the satisfaction of investing in the young.

- Jessica Zausmer

The selfish barrier of language on our part proved to be a problem, sometimes even a little frustrating! Nevertheless I managed to be included with the painting and playful games. They were eager to copy and learn new things, getting me to write out numbers and telling them what they were. They looked for reassurance on their drawings, as if they using their own ideas could be wrong. This was the furthest possible from the truth, as I was encouraging them to draw from their own imagination.

Approaching the nearby broken sprinkler primarily to wash their hands, obviously the simple fountain soon turned into a bathing/splashing occasion for all genders and ages! The children were very patient but always wanted to be involved with the activities that were going on around them.

I found the way the Basti children were unfazed by the lingering on-looking men, surprising in contrast to how it made me feel. They showed me that the men were just as inquisitive as the children to begin with; this made me forget about the countless stares, recognising the lack of interaction people at the Basti may have had with foreigners, in particular young women like Jess and me.

Building bridges and breaking away from the norm was a positive experience and hopefully broke some barriers that may or may not have been there. We helped alongside Blending Spectrum’s tremendous work.

- Hannah Gale

Positive Approaches to implementing Comprehensive Sexuality Education with young people

Capacity Building Workshop, 6th to 8th September 2010, New Delhi

Organized by The YP Foundation and The International Planned Parenthood Federation- South Asia Regional Youth Network (IPPF SARYN), supported by The Girls Decide Campaign.

About The Workshop

An approach to addressing sexuality that considers an abstinence-only or non-comprehensive approach to providing information to empower young people to address their health and rights is in an approach that no longer works to address the growing misconceptions on sexuality and health amongst young people, restricting access to youth friendly, confidential and safe health services. Based on this premise; the workshop aims to address the following issues:

- The workshop aims at providing young people with an overview of Comprehensive Sexuality Education (CSE) and Youth Friendly Health Services (YFHS), to empower young people working with initiatives that focus on young people’s health and rights to access the skills, information and tools available.

- Advancing young people’s right to access comprehensive services and information regarding their sexuality, health and rights, particularly addressing that their sexual rights are human rights.

- Realizing and investing in Human Rights as supporting choice, respect diversity, equality and justice that are often compromised on, and not seen as a part of young people’s right to health.

The workshop comprises of interactive sessions that will be conducted by peer educators from the organization as well as external professionals and partner organizations working in the fields of Gender, Sexuality, Health and Rights, with a particular emphasis on work with access to information and services, research and advocacy.

Applications are due by 20th August 2010

Participants - All applicants must be between the ages of 18 and 26 years at the time of submitting their application. All applicants must have prior experience of working with YFHS or CSE for young people, either as full time or part time work or volunteer experience. Please note that this is a mandatory requirement for participation. As per mandate, 17 seats are reserved for women and girls.

Please download the application form and the concept note for more details. Final applications are to be submitted to divya@theypfoundation.org

Download Concept Note (PDF)

Download Application (Doc)

THE WAIT IS FINALLY OVER!

THE YP FOUNDATION (TYPF) BEGINS ITS INDUCTIONS THIS MONTH for young people who would like to volunteer and work with us in 2010.

DONATE YOUR TIME FOR A CAUSE – JOIN TYPF!

When: You can join us on either one of the 3 days:
July 31, 2010; August 7, 2010 & August 14, 2010

Time:
4.30p – 6.30p

Venue:
American Center, Kasturba Gandhi Marg, New Delhi.

The YP Foundation is a youth run and led organization that supports and enables young people to create programmes and influence policies in the areas of gender, sexuality, health, education, the arts & governance.

The organization promotes, protects and advances young people’s human rights by building leadership, and strengthening youth led initiatives and movements. Founded in 2002, we have worked over the last 8 years directly with 5,000 young people to set up over 200 projects in India, reaching out to 300,000 young people.

For more information:

Please call 011.46792244 or email at yp.volunteer.mangagement@gmail.com or log onto our website www.theypfoundation.org

If you feel strongly about addressing issues of gender, sexuality, health, education, the arts & governance, WHY WAIT?

Join The YP Foundation. Voice your opinions. Work and make a difference.

* If you’re interested, please RSVP and email us to confirm your attendance.

* Please carry any valid photo identification to the venue (sorry, security regulations!)

Who am I?

“The YP Foundation is a collective of 8 years of histories of young people who have lived and worked in Delhi and have engaged with different aspects of the city at different points and times. Seldom does one find an institution to work in, where the development of the people in the organization is paramount to the work it does.

- Pallavi Kaushal, 23 years old, Staff Member, The YP Foundation

Well, professionally, I am the Volunteer Manager at The YP Foundation (TYPF), personally, I can place myself as a young person living in Delhi, working in the development sector and attempting to decipher her own politics on issues and non-issues alike.

This June, I complete one-year of working with TYPF. The past 12 months have been anything but routine and mundane. That’s the thing about this organization, not a single day is the same, not a single conversation is the same and more than anything else, you’re not the same.

What is The YP Foundation? It’s a youth led and run non-profit in New Delhi, India that develops young people’s leadership skills to take action on issues that young people are passionate about. Founded in 2002, the organization supports young people between the ages of 13 and 28 to conceptualize and implement community based projects that challenge stereotypes, forge sustainable partnerships and promote the uninhibited expression of young people.

Let’s break that down. It’s a space where young people like me debate, get involved, get creative, explore new ideas, implement our convictions and claim a stake in processes of governance, mental health and sexual-reproductive rights. It’s a platform where we explore conventional and unconventional ideas of providing access to young people to the performing arts industry; it’s also a place where you are able to learn and hone your skills with filmmaking. Finally, it’s a process, where the means are as, if not more important, than the end, where we understand human rights and its relevance in our personal lives. It’s a place where having differing perspectives from your peers and colleagues are a GOOD thing.

Understanding how to work through the dissonance that emerges from so many young people working across multiple movements, finding solidarity and learning to work together, is a core part of what this organization does for and with young people.

The YP Foundation is all of the above and everything you want it to be. It’s a collective of 8 years of histories of young people who have lived in Delhi and have engaged with different aspects of the city and different points of times. Seldom does one find an institution to work in where the development of the people is paramount to the work it produces.

As the organization moves into a new year it’s looking for passionate and committed young professionals (read: young people between the ages of 13-28) to take forward the aspirations of young people who have worked for TYPF over the past 8 years

If you feel that this is the place for you, apply! If you know someone who you think should apply, let them know we are hiring. J We need your help to spread the word.

The YP Foundation is an organization that challenges who you are and questions your self-defined limits. The question is are you ready for the ride?

Pallavi Kaushal
Head – Volunteer Management System
The YP Foundation

To apply, download 3 forms, the Management Positions Profiles, the Programme Divisions Profiles that will tell you more about the positions available and the Staff Application Form that you need to submit to jobs@theypfoundation.org.

Click here to download a zip folder with all 3 documents

The YP Foundation in collaboration with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), Students for Promotion of International Law (SPIL) and Governance Now

presents a discussion forum:

“From Exploring the RTI Act to Building a Movement – Do Young People Matter?”

March 13th, 2010 at 6 PM – 8.30 PM

at Gulmohar Hall, India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road New Delhi

The forum will explore how young people can take the RTI movement of the country forward. Bringing together leading and key personalities of the movement, the forum will seek to answer the following:

1. At what stage is the RTI Movement currently?
2. Has the filing of RTI Applications increased the overall efficiency and functioning of public authorities?
3. Internationally, what does the right to information signify?
4. What role can young people play in taking the movement forward?
5. What more can be done to make a larger impact and increase the efficacy of the movement?

Creating a space for inter-generational dialogue, the forum intends to set a collaborative agenda between organizations working on the RTI currently in the city and young people who want to get involved in the movement.

Confirmed panelists include:

Mr.Wajahat Habibullah, Chief Information Commissioner
Mr.Shekhar Singh, National Campaign for People’s Right to Information
Ms.Yamini Aiyer, Accountability Intitiative
Ms.Sanchita Bakshi, Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative
Ms.Manju Sadarangani, US Embassy

To confirm your attendance please RSVP @ 46792243/ 44/ 9871011544 / 9899651625/ yp.rti.programme@gmail.com.

We hope to see you there!

Besides the insanity that’s taken over (someone should really put up some of the e-mails circulating within staff, the not-so-inappropriate ones), and the fact that the concert is 3 minutes before the exams start, YAY! And we finally have a website to publicize it on! Hee hee ..

As for V.O.I.C.E.S., we’re the School Project of the YP Foundation. We go into schools across the NCR and conduct FUN (yes, they’re fun!), interactive, facilitative Life Skills workshops on pre-identified themes (such as Peer Influence, Substance Use, Body Esteem, etc.). The idea being, to create a non-judgmental, open and interactive space for teenagers to discuss anything and everything (well, almost) pertinent to their lives. Our 10-year World Peace Goal? (Or World Peach Goal, as Maitreyi likes to put it). That School Students are able to effectively deal with the challenges of every day life.

After what feels like 45 years of research, we’ve finally arrived at a 3-part workshop model, which hopefully can be adapted and used as the VOICES model for some years to come. Ooh and, we’ve finally printed our Manual! YAY!!

And we have an awesome team of 13 people from colleges around Delhi, that all worked on the Manual BTW! Besides this, we’re looking at working with some other organizations, as well as using different mediums (besides the conventional workshop model) to engage with schools whilst the team is in and out for exams in December and January.

We’re at the 6th of December (haha, the delusional idea I had of starting studying on the 1st), and everything looks awesome! We’re pretty much sold out, which is always a good thing. And I’m sure it’s going to go off great! Really looking forward to it