Adolescent Girl Empowerment (Project AGE) with the help of Padala Charitable Trust (PCT) from Andhra Pradesh, India. 2017 2020 report

Jayanthi Charitable Foundation (JCF) has been providing directional and financial support for this project. PCT acts as the core designing and the executing agency.

The programme has been running successfully for 3 years in the 6 Rural High schools in the nearby villages (do we need names of the villages?) of Samalkot Mandal. The schools are located in the Villages namely, Chandrampalem, Madhavapatnam, Vetlaplem, Unduru, Navara, Pavara. A total of 150 adolescent girls (children) have been enrolled in this programme so far.

Under this project, the physical growth, menstrual health, emotional state and overall wellbeing of the enrolled adolescent girls (children) are continuously and closely monitored, and all the necessary measures to improve those conditions were undertaken.

Sanitary napkins to promote menstrual hygiene and nutrition powder to the girls who are subjected to malnutrition are also provided. Screening for anemia and yearly eye-checkups were done. Necessary medicines and corrective eye lens to the required students were given.

With an objective of bringing the youngsters out of superstitions and to break the silence regarding reproductive health, we have conducted regular workshops to increase awareness about menstrual hygiene management. We have also conducted awareness workshops about healthy diet and nutrition.

Inter school level Leadership Building Programme (LBP) to encourage the latent leadership qualities among these children was conducted. Even during the pandemic, we have been constantly in touch with all the students over phone. Following the safety protocol, we even visited them personally to provide sanitary napkins and nutrition powders during this period when the schools were not open for students.

Also, as a part of this project, we supported, 11 students for their vocational course (during ???). All of them have successfully completed their vocational training programme

We identified that the positive changes we have aimed at the beginning. Over the last 3 years, the BMI of many of these students improved. With right hygiene, nutrition, and proper awareness the menstrual health of the girls has been significantly improved. Thus conducting this longitudinal follow up of about 150 adolescent girls for three years proved that continued education, support counselling with a comprehensive assessment and management of these needy children is very effective.

Project Reports

 JCF Interim Report – Nov 2020

JCF Annual Report – Jan 2021

Project Coordinators

 1) Chaithanya Deepthi

 2) Vara Lakshmi

 3) Devi Prasanna