LSE Beneficiary Committee meeting concluded

After the Beneficiary Committee meeting of Educational projects of Higher Education and Girl Child Education, the Life Skills Empowerment project also had its last Beneficiary Committee Meeting conducted to review the activities and the assess the impact of this project’s activities with the parents who form the Beneficiary Committee for this project.

The meeting started with a short dance presentation by the LSE girls on a song to promote welfare of the Girl Child, following which the main agenda of the meeting was followed. Starting with a quick review of all the activities of the year for these LSE girls, discussion then began on the curriculum of the LSE sessions to assess the impact of the same as noticed by the parents. The parents first expressed how happy they are that many myths related to regular mental and physical health were burst for the girls and thereby for the parents by extension through these sessions, especially about menstruation, which is considered to be a taboo subject in many households and thereby facts about how to deal with periods and its difficulties, its importance and importance of maintaining hygiene and good nutrition, etc. fail to reach the girls.

The parents also mentioned how after the LSE sessions, the girls have become more respectful and well behaved. The girls added here on how the sessions on communication skills, time management and stress management has helped them to manage their life, relationships and stress better. One parent appreciated the sessions saying how their child (beneficiary of LSE) was well aware on basic information related to pregnancy – right from the safety measures, precautions, nutrition requirement, checkups etc that the pregnant woman needs to follow, which helped another family member of their family – “Since my daughter had learnt about it in this class, she was able to help our other family member through her pregnancy by constantly taking care of her and taking her to doctor for regular check-ups, which we otherwise might have not done as much.”  Another parent said, “We had enrolled our daughter in these classes since she was mostly at home, creating ruckus and these sessions were free. But post attending these sessions, we see real positive behavioral changes in her! She now is more respectful towards her elders, more understanding of our responsibilities and helps us more, her decision making skills have improved and she has become more logical. These classes are a must for young children.”

At the meeting, one parent also raised the question of why to teach young girls at this age (12, 13, 14 years of age) about menstruation and sexual health and that we should limit the course to just communication skills, public speaking skills etc. At this the team explained to him that this is the age when children start growing into adults, mentally as well as physically. This is when they get curious about everything around them, career wise, relationship wise and even sexual encounter wise and that is why this is when they need to understand how and what physiological and emotional change happen at this age. Also, with half information about physical relationship between men and women available on the internet that teenagers share among themselves and behave irresponsibly, it is imperative to give them full information about attraction towards opposite gender, sexual health and other related topics so they behave responsibly according to their age.

We are glad that the parent agreed with us! And so came to an end the meeting on the year that was, we are thankful that the parents and girls alike, gave us very positive responses, based on which the future sessions shall be designed for the next batch!