This Is How Shadhika and Our Scholars Celebrated Day Of The Girl

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“We always heard about internet safety but we never initiated to learn about it. Today from this toolkit I watched one video on internet safety and shared that video with my friends.”

This Is How Shadhika and Our Scholars Celebrated Day Of The Girl

By Sabah Siddiqui, Donor & Program Associate

November 25, 2021

Reading Time: 4 minutes

All over the world, everyone celebrates the International day of the Girl on October 11th. Shadhika has started to celebrate International Day of the Girl with the Shadhika Scholars in 2019. The Scholars use this day to raise awareness in their family, community and colleges in different parts of India. There are many girls in India who don’t even know such a day exists. This day gives an opportunity for Scholars to share their knowledge and take a little step towards more awareness.

In 2019, Shadhika Scholars spoke to their community & college peers about Menstruation, Education, Health, and Safety. In 2020, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, Shadhika Scholars used technology to reach young women in India. They shared the “Girls’ Bill of Right” to their friends on WhatsApp and talked to them over phone calls about girls’ rights. They also asked them to share that document with others. In the past two years, they have created a chain of awareness.

This year in 2021, we were inspired by UNICEF’s theme called “Digital Generation, Our Generation” for International Day of the Girl. We created a toolkit, including articles, videos, and podcasts focused on internet safety, women in Tech, coding, and many more.

We also received 5 videos from Kaasha and her team from the Saratoga High School’s 649 Mechanical Science and Engineering Team. They made videos on how to use Gmail, Microsoft Word, Google Docs and Google Drive in English and Hindi and we linked those videos on our toolkit. Those videos were really easy to understand and a lot of scholars liked it. You can view the videos here.

Then, we challenged our supporters to take the pledge to take a small step to bridge the gender divide in technology. One of the pledges was as simple as “I will watch a video about internet safety.”

The main objective behind creating this toolkit was to have resources in one place where girls could learn anytime from anywhere using their mobile phones. Today, everything has shifted to a digital platform and because of it we wanted to create this toolkit to demystify technology. We wanted to make it fun, interactive, and inclusive. We made the toolkit available on our website and sent the link to our Partners, Scholars, and Shadhika Alum with some guidance on how to use this toolkit.

We got a lot of feedback from our Shadhika partners, Scholars, and Alum. More than 100 Girls have read the toolkit throughout the month of October. One of our Scholars said: “We always heard about internet safety but we never initiated to learn about it. Today from this toolkit I watched one video on internet safety and shared that video with my friends.”

Another Scholar talked about the pledge she took saying: “I have taken a pledge: I will teach my mom how to take a selfie. I taught my mom to take her own selfie. Now my mom is very happy because she learned to take her own selfie.“

An Alum said “My favourite part of this IDG toolkit was to watch and learn about Gmail and Google Docs, as well as Microsoft Word and Excel “as it gives us an idea of how to operate Excel and Word. I wish we get to read more such toolkits so that we can learn things better and at a slightly higher level.”

Bhumi, a new Scholar from Sahiyar, took a pledge to write a poem:

Let me live
Let me bloom
Let me shine like a beautiful moon!
Let me come,
And see this world!
Let me fly like a beautiful bird!

Don’t be so cruel, oh selfish
Let me swim like colorful fish!
Listen to my cry
Listen to my scream
Let me fulfil my wishes and dreams!
Let me see this beautiful earth,
Please don’t kill me before my birth!

We so appreciate our partners, Scholars, and Alum for taking part in the IDG programming and for providing valuable feedback. Each opinion really matters and we are happy that the toolkit helped them. Based on the comments we have received, the team at Shadhika will try to create more learning resources and toolkits in the future.

Visit Shadhika’s toolkit celebrating girls and young women, bridging digital divides, and driving empowerment by equal and educated access to technology. Also watch the “Towards a Feminist Tech Future” panel with tech leaders examining the practical implications of the gender gap in technology here.