My Village, My Problem. And I Am The Solution

Read and Lead 
To read from Every Last Girl by Safeena Husain and discuss the Educate Girls campaign’s growth and strategy.

Key Takeaways

• Volunteer Growth: Educate Girls’ volunteer force, “Team Balika,” grew from 140 in 2009 to over 1,000 in three years, defying scepticism from government officials and new recruits.

• Intrinsic Motivation: Volunteers are driven by personal stories of educational struggle, adopting the motto “My Village, My Problem. And I Am The Solution.”

• Movement Building: The campaign built a powerful movement by connecting volunteers, providing training, and fostering a shared identity, which transformed individuals into local leaders.

• Strategic Pivot: A “geographical lottery” of out-of-school girls prompted a strategic pivot to data-driven targeting, moving from “carpet bombing” to focusing resources on high-need “hotspots.”

Topics

The “Geographical Lottery” & Strategic Pivot

• Problem: A 2017 analysis revealed a “geographical lottery” in Jhadol Block, where a highway acted as a stark dividing line for girls’ education.

  • South Side: Villages had hundreds of out-of-school girls.

  • North Side: Villages had few to none.

• Inefficiency: The “carpet bombing” approach wasted resources by deploying full programs in villages with no out-of-school girls.

• Solution: A meeting with data expert Dr Neal Shah prompted a strategic pivot.

  • Goal: Use data to find high-need “hotspots” faster.

  • Rationale: The problem is uneven, requiring targeted intervention to maximise impact.

Team Balika: Growth & Motivation

• Growth: The volunteer force grew rapidly, from 140 in 2009 to over 1,000 in three years, becoming an “army of gender champions.”

• Scepticism: The growth defied naysayers, including a district education officer who claimed, “Nobody believed that the early success... would really be something we could deliver at scale.”

• Motto: The volunteers’ shared experience led to the motto, “My Village, My Problem. And I Am The Solution.”

• Personal Stories: The author’s own story—being saved from marriage by an aunt (“Aunt Mahe”) who championed her education—mirrored the volunteers’ motivations.

Volunteer Transformation & Movement Building

• Personal Gains: Volunteering provided significant personal benefits for Team Balika members.

  • Anisha Kumari: Gained mobility and social interaction, escaping the “bat and broom” dichotomy.

  • Babu Lal: A housebound young man with a disability, found belonging and purpose.

  • Farzana: Transformed from shy to a respected leader, completing her 10th-grade exams after an 8-year gap specifically to join the team.

• Movement Building: The campaign fostered a movement by connecting volunteers across villages.

  • Methods: Regular meetings, training, and a help desk.

  • Outcome: A strong sense of belonging and collective action.

  • Symbol: A simple logo (a girl with red pigtails) on uniforms became a badge of honour.

Next Steps

• Group: Continue reading the book next Thursday.

• Pushpita & Akanksha: Invite more students to the reading session.

• Brinda: Explore contacting Educate Girls to express appreciation.

Philip M Burrett "I am passionate about Education...

https://vurbl.com/listen/to-Philip-Burrett

Episode #88: Sandeep Dutt in an honest chat with Philip Burrett, an ex-school master and deputy Headmaster at The Doon School, with 43 years of teaching experience. Now a school consultant, trainer, coach, school mentor and traveller. He was taught in co-ed and single-sex boys schools in Delhi and Mumbai until he arrived at The Doon School Dehradun (India) in 1985. He believes that boys end up in trouble; when we look around, we see many reasons. He is very concerned about handling boys and how we can best educate them. His efforts are to move them away from the pseudo masochism that most boys think is needed to become new warriors-men with empathy and kindness. Now retired seeks to take boys into the outdoors to train, coach and mentor. The need of the hour is to help boys become men and make these rites of passage enjoyable. Once a teacher, always a teacher, works to help colleagues and live well with his family. Philip's father served in the forces, and this is where he learnt the meaning of colour, the need to respect women and persevere. His passion for the outdoors must be his DNA, and he finds that learning is only outside the classroom, beyond the closed spaces and boxed mindsets. Finds that boys in particular call for trouble, and the prisons are full of men. This happens because they lack role models. It is time now for 'men empowerment, and this gives due credence to the Mankind Movement he once followed. We can not make half-baked men; there is a definitive need for rituals, routine and rhythm to help reform the world in distress.

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National Bullying Prevention Month 2020 - Kusum Sharma

As a parent, as I’m sure many of you are, one of my worst fears is to find that my children are either being bullied or being a bully themselves.  I often wonder how we would deal with discovering either of these scenarios. In a world where bullying can take on many new and different forms, it concerns me that not enough parents, guardians, families and friends would know what to do for the best.  

Although sad that such an awareness campaign has to exist in the first place, it’s also reassuring and useful to know that the National Bullying Prevention Center runs the National Bullying Prevention Month throughout the month of October with lots of information and support readily available to help anyone who may need it.  

Established by PACER, a centre for parent training and information for families and youth with disabilities, the initial campaign was designed to raise awareness of the long-lasting effects that bullying has on many children and young people and to change the perception that bullying is a part of growing up that cannot be challenged.  Collaborating with education-based organizations such as the National PTA, the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association they provide schools, parents and students with the educational resources and support to better respond to bullying behaviour.

Throughout the month the campaign aims to work at a grassroots level with local schools, community groups, young people and families to address any issues faced by them, signpost to organizations who may be able to offer support, educate youngsters about the effects of bullying and promote kindness, acceptance and inclusion. 

On a higher level, they also work with news and media outlets encouraging them to promote their message and cause as well as communicating with education and public policy leaders about the role they play in bullying prevention.

Courtesy- https://www.awarenessdays.com/

Kusum Sharma, The Fabindia School <ksa@fabindiaschools.in>