Champion Girl Concept Paper
1. About the Organization-
Champion Girl Child is a registered social organization dedicated to human service, which is currently providing its services in the direction of social development in Unnao, Balrampur, Azamgarh, Ghazipur and Chandauli districts of Uttar Pradesh for the last 21 years. The organization is working on the issues of health and nutrition, quality basic education, pre-school education and nutrition, adolescent girl and women empowerment, protection of migrant laborers and child protection in rural areas. The organization has been conducting institutional activities with the support, dialogue and cooperation with the concerned government departments at the local level. The organization is contributing daily towards nation building with its 121 dedicated social workers at its head office, Varanasi and 6 project offices.
2. About Sanjivani Project-
Sanjivani Project is a project working on health and nutrition which receives financial assistance from Child Right and You which we know as CRY. This project is running in 26 forest villages of Chakia development block of Chandauli district of Uttar Pradesh. The organization provides assistance to the poor, most of whose families are from Scheduled Caste, Backward Caste and Vanvasi community.
3. Background of Champion Girl-
The organization started operating Sanjivani Project in April 2017. In this project, the purpose was to know the status of implementation of aspects related to child rights in the designated villages and work on the gap. The organization conducted a baseline survey and obtained information regarding the status. In the next phase of project implementation, Bal Samuh, Balika Samuh and Kishori Samuh were formed in the villages. Knowing the level of knowledge and understanding of child rights from the children, giving information by conducting meetings on a monthly basis, building understanding through sports activities of children from time to time and promoting collective efforts. Increasing contemporary topics and knowledge by giving exposure to children at the local level, etc. After such efforts in the initial years, some children from the groups were seen to have better knowledge, understanding than other children and putting forward their views in meetings, worrying about the development of other children of their village, etc. From this, it was understood that why don't we train such children separately so that such children can emerge as a champion. It was agreed at the project level that first provide these opportunities to the girls. In 2021, we organized a training for champion girls.
4. About Champion Girl-
Champion girl is mainly an active member of the adolescent group whose age is 15 to 18 years. It can be more than 18 years also because she plays that role until she gets married. A total of 25 girl groups have been formed in the project area. An active girl in those groups has been selected to be the champion and she is the champion girl. Some standards have been set like-
1. The girl whose education is regular.
2. The girl who goes to school regularly.
3. The girl who regularly participates in the monthly meetings of the Kishori group and expresses her views.
4. The girl who, along with her participation in the group, inspires other girls.
5. The girl who is concerned about the development of other girls and boys of the village.
6. The girl who talks about career in life and is ready to achieve it.
7. The girl's lifestyle may be simple but her thinking should be of progressive level. 8. The girl's behaviour should not be based on caste, class, high and low and communalism.
9. The girl's work should be in the interest of children.
On the basis of the above-mentioned indicators, girls will be selected and every year about 35 girls will be trained through the project.
5. Champion Girl Training-
After consent of the girls selected from the adolescent group and written consent from their parents, a 2-day training programme will be organised every year at the project office. The subject matter of the training will include providing detailed information about the project and the organisation, the age of the child, child rights, children's diseases like malnutrition, anemia, health challenges due to marriage at a young age, etc., along with providing information on village-level health services like child development and nutrition, health centres, service providers like Anganwadi, Aasha, ANM, etc., and on the second day, practice will be conducted on building the dream of a child-friendly village and the role of a champion, etc.
6. Role of the champion girl in her village-
Although the champion girl herself is a school going girl, we cannot have clear expectations from her. Still we expect that in her village-
1. Identify those malnourished children on the basis of the index and inform the project worker.
2. Identify those children who do not go to school and inform the project worker.
3. Inform the project worker about any kind of disease/diarrhea and other such diseases in the village.
4. Inform the project worker about the obstacles, challenges and problems faced by the girls of your village in going to school.
5. Inform the girls of your village about the monthly meetings of the girl group and play the role of a facilitator.
6. Motivate the adolescent girls of your village to get vaccinated against tetanus.
7. Provide information to the adolescent girls of your village on issues like anemia and kitchen garden, iron folic acid etc.
8. Motivate the adolescent girls of your village for higher education.
9. Join the Village Child Welfare and Protection Committee of your Gram Panchayat as a child member.
10. Make the adolescent girls of your village aware of the decisions of the Village Child Welfare and Protection Committee.
11. Make the adolescent girls of your village aware of marriage at an early age and inform the project worker about such incidents.
7. Challenges of the Champion Girl-
The Champion Girls have many challenges of their own. They are pressured by their own family to remain confined to themselves. Due to the caste system in the society, they do not feel comfortable in going to settlements of other castes. Even after a lot of efforts, if the targeted girls do not follow, they get disappointed and due to a prejudice, they do not try from their level. If the girls get married during or after the creation of Champion Girls, the entire process becomes futile for that village. Due to the thinking of their society, the Champion Girls are not comfortable in doing activities with the children of their village.
8. Coordination of Sanjeevani Project with Champion Girls-
Champion Girls is a model for the project which is a link in the efforts of the organization to ensure the rights of the children of that village. The project will provide training and guidance to the selected girls to a certain extent so that the girls can establish themselves as a model in their village and the parents can present their children as an example. The project worker will provide capacity building and guidance by holding meetings with the champions at the cluster level/village level on a monthly basis. On quarterly basis, an orientation program will be organized at the project office with some of the champion girls who have better understanding. On the occasion of International Women's Day, the champion girls will be honored with a certificate.
9. Role of the project team in the development of champion girls-
The roles of the project worker in the development of champion girls selected at the project level will be as follows-
1. Giving an opportunity as a facilitator in the monthly meetings of the adolescent group.
2. Giving an opportunity as a leader in the meeting of the champion girl group.
3. Giving life skills training.
4. Giving training on behavior change dialogue.
5. Creating dreams of life.
6. Providing career guidance.
7. Giving leadership training.
8. Giving the girl an opportunity to express her views on various platforms. 9. Helping in getting information and application for opportunities like scholarship program.
10. Maintaining communication and coordination with the girl's parents and keeping them updated on the progress.
10. Contribution of the Champion Girl to her society/community-
A fixed time period is fixed in the Champion Girl Project area according to the age group. Along with this, the girl's parents and the girl herself, when she becomes an adult, are dependent on their parents for their life decisions. As long as she stays in the project area, she will work for the welfare of the children of her village and after marriage, she will make her mark in the society and community of the village she goes to. Her knowledge and skills will have a full impact on her family, her children and the surrounding community. If she is selected as a service provider in her life, then its result will be widespread. Which is also a basic goal of the project.
11. Champion Girl Activities-
The project will undertake the following initiatives with the champion girls-
1. Monthly follow up meetings of initiatives on health and nutrition and child rights
2. Identifying and writing stories of change of initiatives on health and nutrition and child rights.
3. Identifying 35 girls and training them on health and nutrition.
4. Helping the trained champion girls in such a way that they are able to educate the children of their village on health and nutrition issues.
5. Documenting the working methods and results of the champion girls.
6. Training of champion girls on cyber security issues.
12. Future Plan:-
At the champion girl level-
The organization plans to develop the champion girl as a health and nutrition champion as well as a gender champion. So that along with child rights in the village, the feeling of gender discrimination among children can be reduced, which will have a widespread effect on the society in the form of gender equality in the coming time. It will provide more opportunities to girls and this will reduce the obstacles in their childhood life and the opportunities will be seen in abundance. This will bring openness at the parent level for the all-round development of children. The following training will be organized at the Champion Girl level-
ऽ Jeevan Kaushal Training.
ऽ Behaviour Change Dialogue Training.
ऽ Leadership Development Training.
ऽ Cyber Security Training.
ऽ Gender Equality Training.
ऽ Career Guidance Training etc.
At the project worker level-
The organization will first prepare a module on gender equality. On which the project team will be oriented and trained. After the training, an implementation test will be conducted to see which workers are able to give training. The workers who are not able to match will be given the role of assistant in training. The successful worker will be given an opportunity.
Linkage with Women Welfare Department-
The champion girls will be coordinated with the Women Welfare Department Chandauli. In which they will be linked with Child Welfare Officer, Child Line Coordinator, Women Help Line etc. as well as various schemes of Women Welfare Department. Help will be provided in getting a letter of appreciation for good work. By organizing a coordination meeting with the department at the cluster level, the girls will be given an opportunity to express their views.