Reshma is a community facilitator for SNEHA's Adolescents Gaining Ground project. When she arrived for a scheduled life skills session, the venue was locked. Rather than cancel, she decided to hold the session outside on the uneven ground. SNEHA trains local women as facilitators to provide sexual and reproductive health education, empowerment, and life skills to adolescents in their communities. Through perseverance and success stories, the facilitators are motivated to continue their important work of making a difference for young people.

1. UNLOCKING
LOCKED DOORS:
THE SNEHA
IMPACT
Adolescents Gaining Ground (AGG)
A Photo Essay

2. When 16 young and excited faces arrived at
the doorstep of the local community hall at
Ramabai Nagar, N Ward, Ghatkopar, they
were met with disappointment. A large
wrought iron lock hung on the venue’s
wooden door.
“It is today right?” they began asking around
in disappointed voices.

3. Reshma looked around. The persons from whom
SNEHA had rented out the premises for the day’s
life skills session for young people were nowhere to
be seen.
“Wait, wait,” Reshma said as the young children
began crowding around her chanting, “SNEHA didi,
SNEHA didi, kya Karen?”
What do we do?

4. A file photo of a few of SNEHA’s project facilitators
Reshma is a community facilitator and has been actively involved with
SNEHA for the past eight years. She imparts life skill sessions as part of
SNEHA’S Adolescents Gaining Ground (AGG) project. The project is one
of the many projects under SNEHA’s larger Sexual and Reproductive
Health Programme.

5. A file photo of a few of SNEHA’s project facilitators
Women like Reshma, usually begin their day at 5:30
in the morning, at the community water pump.
They spend a considerable part of the morning
filling up large buckets of water required for the
day’s washing, bathing and all other household
chores. After they complete their cooking and
household chores and after tending to their
husbands and children, it is then time - time for
them to become a SNEHA-didi.

6. IDENTIFYING THE TRAINER
A file photo of a few of SNEHA’s project facilitators
SNEHA, under their AGG programme, trains and
employs 25 project facilitators – women from and
within the community who live in the slums and work
with their peers and neighbours.

7. IDENTIFYING THE TRAINER
The process of identifying potential
project facilitators and training them is
long, perennially ongoing and dynamic.
SNEHA’s project officers, after
dedicating multiple hours at community
project sites, identify potential project
facilitators.

8. IDENTIFYING THE TRAINER
SNEHA’s ideology, work and impact are explained to them in detail.
After a series of personal interviews where each potential facilitator’s
beliefs in community development is evaluated they are empowered by
SNEHA. That empowerment transforms them into a SNEHA--didi

9. TRAINING THE TRAINER
Once inducted, project facilitators are trained extensively in
areas of sexual and reproductive health, gender issues in the
community, the health system, water and sanitation,
hygiene and nutrition, illnesses related to poor and unclean
diet, puberty and awareness about sexually transmitted
diseases.

10. Through role-plays, poster-making and
other activity-based sessions, SNEHA
imparts not only knowledge but
empowerment, soft skills and life skills.

11. Left: A file photo of SNEHA project facilitators making posters
Right: A completed poster

12. At every given point, their opinions
are sought and importance is given to
their suggestions.
“It is important to make them feel
important,” says one of SNEHA’s
project officers, “they do such good
work, and they have to feel good
about it.”

13. As part of their daily work all community
facilitators travel far and wide within the
community to identify and induct into the
programme, children in the age group of 11
to 18.
They begin with a door-to-door survey,
speaking to families and asking them
about the profile of the adolescents at
home – school-going, working
or school-dropouts?

14. WORKING THROUGH ISSUES
“Once,” Reshma says, “I spent two hours
convincing a family to send their three
adolescent children to attend these
sessions. And then the neighbour came and
said, “If you send the girls away you have to
do all the housework yourself in the
evening.”
The children never enrolled.

15. For every slammed DOOR…
So how does she feel motivated to continue?
“The success stories,” she says, “for every
slammed door there is one story of change.”

16. Working around exam schedules
& and festive days like Ganpati,
these sessions are normally held
in the afternoons when both
the facilitators and the
children are free - after
household chores and school .

17. As a result of these sessions, children
know about diseases like Malaria and TB
& how to prevent them.
They know about AIDS &
that prevention is necessary
They know that their sisters too should go to
school
They know about family planning and the ideal
family size
And, they know the bodily changes
that are happening to them.
They know that they are NORMAL and that they can make a difference.

18. So that Thursday afternoon at
Ramabai Nagar, when Reshma
realized that the door was
locked, she made a simple
decision.
“Let’s do it here,” she said
suddenly with a big smile.
“Here?” they asked looking at
the locked door and the
cemented floor outside the room
– bumpy, hard and uneven
“Yes,” she said and smiled
The boys obeyed happily

19. Each day AGG community facilitators conduct at least one training session within
their community.
In a year more than 6000 children benefit by these sessions.
It’s a world fraught with inequality and ignorance.
It takes a true friend to make a difference.
SNEHA. OUR FRIEND.