Girls empowerment programme using Netball and life skills education & transforming lives of adolescent girls throughout India

Adolescent girls account for nearly 11% of the Indian Population; most of them have limited understanding of how to protect themselves and manage the outside world.

Even though they are an important part of the development process, adolescent girls are vulnerable to range of health issues, including HIV infection, due to social norms that often restrict them from making decision’s about early marriages & sexual relations. The health of these girls has an ongoing, inter-generational effect as they are the mothers and influencer of tomorrow.

Naz’s Solution to the problem is addressed via the program called Goal.

In 2006 Naz India in partnership with Standard Chartered Bank piloted the Goal programme which is a women’s empowerment program that works in urban communities, offering weekly sessions to adolescent girls who may or may not attend school and who are subsisting on a low family income. Goal uses the sport of netball and life skills education to transform the lives of young underprivileged girls in India, on and off the court. The curriculum focusses on educating the young women on topics including health, rights, communication, financial literacy & teamwork.

Goal’s approach greatly reduces dropout rate seen in programs of other traditional NGO’s that educate about these topics in a classroom style.

The Goal programme is being implemented in Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai and since inception the program has reached out to 16,543 girls.

Through its experience in Goal, Naz India has built its capacity to identify, select and train groups of girls who have shown high enthusiasm and leadership potential; these girls are groomed to become trainers for their peers, thus ensuring the sustainability of Goal, and also, helping the girls become change agents of tomorrow. Long term, Naz intends to capitalize on their ability to provide training and capacity building for other organizations.

Read more about the work Naz India does here.