PROGRAM SPOTLIGHT: AADARSH

From Shereen’s Journal:

As a volunteer at Sambhali Trust last year, one of my roles was to help put together a program about puberty for teens in Jodhpur, India. I wanted to find out what they already knew so I asked the girls living at Sambhali Trust’s Sheerni Boarding Home if their teachers discussed the physical changes that happen as they grow up. They said they learned a little bit, but when it got to the diagram that showed male body parts the teacher just skipped that page. They wanted to know more.

Coming of age in a conservative part of the United States in the 1970s I could relate – both to the confusion about what was happening around and to me, and also to the desire to know more.  And I knew ignorance could be dangerous. My #MeToo includes being sexually harassed by my driver’s ed teacher. I didn’t understand what was happening and I didn’t tell a soul.

Many decades later, the teenagers in Jodhpur, India face the same kinds of barriers caused by lack of information. Sambhali Trust saw that need and rose to act. Building on five years of experience working with young schoolchildren to prevent sexual abuse, Sambhali Trust created a program for teens called Aadarsh. 

Aadarsh (“ideal” in Hindi) debuted last spring in public and private schools in Jodhpur and covers the mental and physical changes of puberty, sexual harassment and abuse, internet safety, creating a positive self-image, and avoiding crime. It reaches young people whose lack of information made them vulnerable from many angles ranging from girls missing school during their periods to internet predators. It gives youth the strength that comes from knowledge and precious control over their own bodies. 

Sambhali U.S.’s support of Aadarsh is our part in making sure those important pages are no longer skipped.