Udaan
A unique Fellowship Program to enable rural girls (Aged between 10 to 21) to lead social change in their villages by designing and implementing action projects in their communities
How the program started?
In India, almost half the citizens live in deepening insecurity, threatened not by terrorists or war, but by society they are born into. Girls and women face severe discrimination throughout their lives, right from infancy to Old age. They are told that their lives are about supporting their families, their husband, their children, and they start believing as if they do not have any other purpose of their existence.
These normalized attributes restrict them from developing their independent identity and realization of their potential. We see that such conditions of male entitlement lead to many incidences of violence against women, both within and outside of the homes.
During our field visits for a youth development and Child Bonded labor program in 2014, we noticed the different realities and traditional needs of young men and women belonging to tribal &
rural areas. We also came across the different ways in which some young women are defying set social boundaries in their families in small ways.
Awareness Areas
- Adivasi Culture
- Menstrual Hygiene
- Early Marriage
- Sextuality
- Child Marriage
- Sports Education
- Good touch - Bad touch
- Gender Equality
- Human Rights
How we work?
Synergy Udaan fellows use a leadership development strategy with young women or girls around their age. We believe that it’s a fundamental to strengthen the fellows’ roots through broadening their awareness of themselves – their individuality and social identity, their strengths and limitations, their fears and aspirations, their rights, and their social and cultural surroundings.
In the second phase of the strategy, fellows broaden their horizons by expanding their potential areas, becoming role models for other young people in their communities and facilitating similar journeys for other young women. Fellows take part in the development and implementation of a social action project in their communities to accomplish this. Fellows are encouraged to pursue their dreams following goals post completion of their two year program.
The entire fellowship journey of Udaan
