Bhubaneswar, November 6: A three-days training and capacity building workshop for 30 peer leader girls from eight slums of the city commenced today at CYSD premises. This is the second phase training for the girls from city slums, who were provided introductory training during July this year.
The peer leader girls named as ‘Pragati Sathi’ have been involved in community awareness and mapping activities under Socially Smart Bhubaneswar initiative of the BMC and Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL).
Educating the peer leaders was necessitated as the development of the Smart City is not only development based on structures, IT, infrastructure and technology. The Smart City Proposal was also having a focus area to develop the society as a whole and especially the people staying in slum areas across the Smart District.
The peer leader girls have been very effective in taking up issues faced by the communities in their respective slums and working towards resolution of those issues with the help and support of the authorities. Apart from the civic body, several public interface programmes are also being conducted with police and other govt. agencies, with the help of these peer leaders from various slums in the city.
In the three-day programme the peer leader girls will be provided training and tips on leadership development and adolescent health issues.
The major objectives under this training programme include:
•To bring about clear understanding among the participants on the second phase modules and the themes thereof.
•To build adolescent girls’ friendly skills that would be helpful to pass on the scheduled messages to the leaders and the ASHGs subsequently.
•To build not only the participants’ art of communication but their attitude as well so that they seriously and effectively deliver the training to leaders and bring about necessary changes among the latter and through them among the adolescent girls.
Other topics included Menstrual Management, Understanding the reasons for child marriage, the consequences of child marriage and steps to prevent child marriage.
Under the Socially Smart Bhubaneswar initiative, street play and life skill training was conducted at Masjid Colony Basti in Kharvel Nagar on Sunday, wherein awareness was created on health issues, benefits of institutional delivery, importance of vaccination of children etc.
It can be mentioned here that as part of Socially Smart Bhubaneswar initiative undertaken by BSCL and BMC, a special public interface session was conducted on August 23 this year with adolescent girls, “Pragati Sathi’’ peer leaders and members of mothers’ committees from eight slums of BTCD area, at BMC Library premises in Bapuji Nagar.
Over sixty girls and women participated in this special session wherein officials of city agencies along with Women Police Station Inspector Ms. Iman Kalyani Nayak briefed the participants on various crimes against women and available legal provisions to safeguard their rights. Mentioning about various precautions that can be taken to avert any crime in the neighbourhood, she suggested to organize “Ama Police program” at community level for more effective redressal of the safety issues raised by the participants.
Comments are closed.