Women’s Health and Awareness Workshop
by Ms. Eliane and Ms. Johanna, Jodhpur project, April 2009

Inspired by previous work done by volunteers, Johanna and I attempted to evaluate the need for a second workshop on sexual health and reproduction. The new batch of younger girls had not participated in last year’s workshops and the older ones, who had, expressed an interest in reviewing the subject. Staging this workshop would also allow me to raise issues such as rape, abortion and prostitution in the Women’s Rights workshops I was planning for later.

All of the material produced by the previous volunteers, Meghan and Fayette, had unfortunately disappeared entirely from the classroom for reasons that no-one was really able to explain. Johanna and I were obliged to research the subject again and produce new material. We produced anatomy diagrams, printed out posters and pamphlets on various means of contraception, and bought condoms so the girls could practice. We also downloaded several audio and video files to make the workshops more interactive.

Following the girls’ requests, we held the workshop behind closed doors in the sewing room to ensure maximum privacy. We decided to stage a condensed workshop over three days, with three hours of workshops per day. It was necessary to do this as we were unavailable for many days due to the Market Stall and Johanna’s departure was approaching quickly.

Our schedule was as follows:

- Day One: Anatomy, Reproduction & Menstruation
- Day Two: Pregnancy and Contraception
- Day Three: Sexually Transmitted Diseases & HIV/AIDS

The schedule was thrown off on the first day, when over lunchtime, one of our girls was sexually harassed outside of the guesthouse. All of us went down to the police station to file an FIR against the boys. Afterwards we all sat down with Govind and he asked the girls what they had learned from the experience. It turned out to be a good experience to use as a springboard for the Women’s Rights workshop to be held later, and as we’d planned some extra time for games at the end of the Sexual Education workshop anyway, we were still able to discuss all our subjects within our three-day time frame.

Govind’s wife Mukta took time off her busy schedule running the guesthouse to translate for us. We were very grateful for her help and presence, as it is quite obvious that the girls trust her a lot and feel comfortable around her.

The outcome was very rewarding. On the first day - probably due to the delicate first subject - many of the girls were shy and didn’t dare openly participate in the workshop. To get them talking, we had them fill in and label diagrams in groups. By the second day, however, the girls had become very open and were asking us many questions. Some of them were of such a medical nature that we had to research them afterwards! We were kept quite busy during those three days, looking up additional information, emptying the question box and consulting Mukta on the girl’s work and progress.

The gaps in knowledge between the various girls were enormous. Some of the girls from the middle batch were extremely knowledgeable on everything, including the details on HIV transmission, whereas some of the girls from the first batch were still confused as to from where a newborn baby emerges from a woman’s body. Finally, the very new girls had absolutely no knowledge whatsoever of the subject. It was challenging to consolidate all these levels of expertise, but we found that group work was the best way to go about doing so.

Some of the girls were very grateful for the work we had done, which was very satisfying for us. One of them even hugged us at the end and said “Thank you for my future”! Overall, we were just very happy to have been able to arm them with the crucial information they will need in their day-to-day life and decision-making.

As Meghan and Fayette before us, we hope that future volunteers reuse what we did, improve it, and feed this critical knowledge to the girls that will arrive at Sambhali during the next cycle. We have left all our electronic documents and support on Govind’s computer, and all the paper support in the computer room, where we hope it will survive!