After some discussion on whether or not the expense was justified, we all agreed that school uniforms would be very beneficial for the self-esteem of the children, and their sense of self-worth. The uniforms were stitched by some ladies in the local villages who know tailoring which gave them some work and added income. We think they all look lovely!
We have started regular monthly awareness meetings for teenage girls from local villages. The program consists of games and activies, interspersed with awareness talks on relevant issues, such as hygiene, nutrition, (in India, anemia is the 2nd most common cause of maternal deaths accounting for 19% of total maternal deaths,*) female infanticide, education, aids awareness etc. These meetings have been very well attended with between 60-100 girls regularly participating. They are starting to open up also about the problems they see in their villages, even citing prostitution as a problem, along with high dowries, lack of respect for women etc.
For Pongal (the Harvest festival of South India, which is a big celebration,) the girls also enjoyed dance competitions and displayed a lot of talent. We hope you enjoy the photos below of our meetings.
*'Nutritional Status of Rural Pregnant Women' by
L.H. Madhavi, H.K.G. Singh,Department of Community Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Khaja Banda Nawaz Institute of Medical Science,Gulbarga-585105 (Karnataka)
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