Fellowship

Bobby Vinod Bobhate

One of our Shakti Girl project participant, Bobby age 18 years is playing football from past 4 years. She is passionate about football and actively participates in community activities. She lost her father at an early age. Her mother works as a laborer in farms and she is the sole earning member of the family. She has cleared her HSC exam in 2019-20 and aspire to complete her graduation in arts. She was not able to enroll herself because of her dire financial condition which got worse during lockdown in pandemic.

Damini Raut

Resident of a small village near Hingaghat town, Damini aspire to be government officer by clearing MPSC exams. She is one of the potential youth leaders identified during the Shakti Girls initiative because of her strong communication skill, curiosity to learn new things and active community participation. She is born in a farmer’s family. Her father is a farmer and works very hard to meet the ends for his family. Damini is pursuing her graduation in Arts. She loves to play football and very keen to engage and coach younger girls of her community.

Sejal Sonare

Sejal, 18 year old girl from Bokhara village who is playing in Slumsoccer tournaments from past 5 years and member of Shakti Girls team. She participated in Maharashtra state level school division football tournament and passionate about football. She is keen to join Railways and become an officer. She is pursuing her graduation in Arts. Her parents are laborer working in factories and road construction work. She is need of financial support to continue her studies smoothly. She is an active leader in Slum soccer’s community impact program.

Isha Silare

Isha, 19 years old, pursuing BSC in mathematics and statistics from hislop college ground. She comes from a very conservative and humble background. Her father being the only breadwinner and his meagre income made it difficult for her to continue her education. “I still remember the discussion with my father who said he won’t be able to support her education due to financial constraints” Isha said. Since I have been getting a scholarship, everything has been going smoothly. I have passed my first semester successfully. Since I require a laptop I am keeping aside some money out of my scholarship to purchase a laptop. I have been learning how to operate computers in slum soccer which is helping me create presentations for my studies in college. Isha represented her state in the School Division National Tournament. She wants to bring out girls from her communities to participate in sports as much as possible. Football has helped her learn various life lessons, and made me more resilient to face any challenges. She started engaging girls in 3 villages around her community. She engages 60 girls on a regular basis and educates them about life skills, menstrual health management, and gender equality.

Sheetal Sahu

Sheetal (22 year) is an inspiration for many girls in her community in Dipti Signal, Nagpur. Things weren’t same, as she had a tough childhood, being born to poor family and growing up as a girl in conservative and patriarchal background. She experienced hardship, discrimination, and hatred from her society (like other girls in her slum community). Her mistake being her will to overcome all the barriers and become an agent of change.She aspired to help many girls in her community, to overcome the barriers that hindered their development. 10 years back, her family (including her mother, elder brother, and younger sister) migrated from Chhattisgarh to Nagpur, due of shortage of jobs. Her father had died in a road accident, and her mother startedworking for a small loan company, collecting money from people. Sheetal joined her mother to help and routinely went from house to house,where they were insulted by the debtors. Situation depressed them and led her mother to a new job, working in a restaurant as a cleaner. Sheetal joined her to help and contribute to studies for her younger sister (while giving up her studies).They were insulted at many places,including her relatives because she works in restaurant. Her community (and many similar ones across the country) are illiterate or educationally backward, not aware how education and sports can shape the future.Society expected girls to stay home, but she wanted to break that culture and support her family financially. She started to put her plan into action, by attending a Youth Leadership training program (3 modules, 3 days each, covering leadership to identify problems in hercommunity, root causes to the problems, and an action plan). She immediately began working in her community with the help of her friends, and result of her action brought about several changes to girls (as well as boys). As of today,more than 100 girls are playing football and learning about leadership, importance of education and sports, menstrual health management (considered to be a taboo), gender equality by playing together and more. She has developed 3 girl’s leaders, who are now educating children in this unprecedented time of COVID19.