Born in the village of Dahu in Jharkhand, Seema spent most of her childhood taking care of goats, bringing water from a well and mostly doing house chores. Today, Seema has secured admission to Harvard University with a fully-funded scholarship and is looking forward to stepping into Harvard this August.
She describes this as a huge moment in her life as she is the first one to attend college in her family. Seema’s extraordinary story from almost being a child bride to getting admitted to one of the most prestigious universities in the world wouldn’t have been possible if she hadn’t joined been helped by Yuwa. Seema’s story is just one of the many success stories of Yuwa girls studying in universities like Ashoka University, Krea University and Mondragon University (Spain).
Yuwa started as a football program in 2009 by Franz Ghastler to build leadership skills in girls to combat child marriages and trafficking. What started as a small team grew to cater to more than 300 young girls, making it one of the biggest football programs for girls in India. The main aim was to build confidence in girls and encourage them to attend schools.
However, the schools in Jharkhand were not serving in the personal transformation of these girls. Hence, in 2015, Yuwa school was started by Rose Ghastler, who is currently the educational director. While football builds confidence and discipline, the educational program helps prepare these girls to excel in education, transition to colleges, and pave the path to meaningful careers, helping them break the cycle of poverty.
Seema said, “In 2015, I joined the Yuwa School in 7th grade and started coaching and leading workshops to pay my school fees. Yuwa has helped me see and experience a different lifestyle by giving me opportunities to travel abroad. I learned that life could be so different, and I can be independent. I have become a more goal-oriented person trying to make my and my cousins future brighter. I want to write books about women and for children. Along with it, I want to have my organization working with women by providing them with some kind of employment and educating them about their rights and the society we live in.”
A curriculum that gives opportunities through extracurriculars and academics helps in the holistic development of the girls. A day in the life of a Yuwa girl starts with an early bus ride to the football fields at 4:30 am. The football ground is the space for them to meet and learn about confidence and courage through the game. Girls are often shamed by the villagers for wearing football shorts.
While some girls continue wearing the shorts, others wear shorts on top of leggings to avoid the villagers’ stares. After their football practice, girls return home by 7 am to do house chores and get ready for school. By 8:45 am, these girls walk to the Yuwa school – a garage-like space that has been transformed into a stimulating classroom by the teachers and students.
The low student to teacher ratio of 9:1 aids in personalized attention to each student by the teacher. As soon as school ends at 3 pm, the girls return home to study, cook and help their family. 90% of football coaches are young women and seniors from the school. They use that income to pay their school fee, making the program sustainable and teaching these girls financial independence from a young age.
While discussing the accomplishments, Franz said, “The biggest accomplishments I would say are adaptation, clear focus and endurance. The endurance of doing things in the right way focused on what the girls need and not what some international funding agency thinks is the flavour of the month or the whim of some far-away funder or boss. Although I’m far away from the kids now, I lived in the same villages as them from 2008 – 2020, and Rose from 2013 – 2020. Apart from very few teachers, every Yuwa staff member has lived in those same villages over the years. Yuwa has adapted and endured as an organization and mirrored those traits in the girls we serve.”
The low teacher-student ratio helps build a personal bond and a sense of trust between the teacher and student, which goes beyond academics. It helps the girls approach the teachers without any hesitation. Organizations like these act as a catalyst to improve girls’ education and empower girls to earn their independence.
In recent times organizations like Educate girls, Avasara Academy, Project Balika, Sapnewali and many others have emerged to provide quality education and skills for girls and women. This could be due to a number of reasons, including an increasing number of girls dropping out of school, a focus on holistic education and so on.
The current curriculum by the government isn’t serving the purpose. For example, sports is merely seen as a free period in the timetable in many schools rather than a means to build leadership and collaboration among students. Merely sending the girls to school won’t help their holistic development, but creating spaces that help their personal and academic development is necessary if we envision an India where girls and women hold leadership positions and achieve gender equality.
The author is a Kaksha Correspondent as a part of writers’ training program under Kaksha Crisis.