Holistic Development for Employability Enhancement and Leadership

“I want to live a colourful life. A life where I am free, and I can do anything I wish to do. A life where no one will judge me or question me based on my gender. A life where I can be financially independent and can take care of myself on my own.”

-Payal Kumari, 21 Years Old, Girl Champions Fellow 2021-22

The Girl Champions Program is Protsahan India Foundation’s umbrella community intervention program. The Program involves in-depth long-term work with each girl enrolled at Protsahan to truly transform her into a champion and model for her community. The Girl Champion Fellowship, a new program under the Girl Champions umbrella, was launched in September 2021 to address continuing societal and structural inequities faced by older girls.

The time for intervention is now: the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbates existing inequalities in areas such as the job market, educational inequity, and digital access. The objectives of the fellowship are thus far-ranging to increase the quality of life for girls in a variety of target areas.

Objectives of the Fellowship:

1. To encourage girls living in situations of vulnerability to grow up empowered with access to education and healthcare in safe spaces with greater freedom from all forms of abuse and violence
2. To identify academically high-performing young girls from underserved communities, and provide them with a platform to excel by means of a merit-based scholarship and leadership development program
3. To connect girl beneficiaries, their families, and the community at large with government schemes and benefits to ensure sustainability and add scale to the impact of the program
4. To support girls to accelerate social change and mobilize communities to support Covid-19 vaccination and Covid relief with a focus on neglected slum clusters and rural India
5. To provide platforms that support skills-building for girls (e.g. digital, foundational, job-specific, STEAM, 21st Century) to enhance their employability quotient

Through an innovative, modularised curriculum (with topics such as digital literacy, civic participation, financial literacy, self-awareness, life skills, and English skills) Protsahan India Foundation expects to see a myriad of positive outcomes for the 30 Girl Champion Fellows. A non-comprehensive list of measurable outcomes includes delayed age of marriage and pregnancy, increasing civic participation/agency, reducing the women’s unemployment rate, decreasing child rights violations, and fostering financial independence.

MEET OUR FIRST COHORT: 2021-22