In May, Christine was finally able to travel back to India to meet some of Saphara’s valuable partner NGOs, schools, pupils and friends in India after such a long time due to the pandemic!
Christine’s journey began at SNEHA Doon Academy in Dehradun where she was delighted to catch up with the children and some Saphara Girl Champions, and to spend time with the wonderful Dr Reeta Rao, founder and director of SNEHA.
On Saturday Christine made the trip to one of her favourite places in India, Kaplani High School which is nestled up in the Himalayas! A journey which is often a favourite memory of students of past Saphara teams
While visiting the Himalayas, Christine was also delighted to meet
with some amazing young women who are leaders of the Saphara Girl Champions
programme in Himalayan villages.
Saphara Girl Champions programme was developed to empower young
girls from the marginalised Dalit and tribal (Adivasi) communities. The
programme builds the emotional resilience of the girls, their understanding of
menstrual health and ultimately creates create supportive and inclusive communities,
encouraging more girls to stay in education and to follow their dreams for the
future.
At SNEHA the wonderful Kamlesh and Vinita are leaders of Girl
Champions programme, empowering so many young girls to grasp the bright future
ahead of them!
While on her visit Christine also made the famous trek to Donk – another popular memory of many former Saphara students! There she visited met up with some, very grown up, past pupils of Donk Primary School:
“It’s great to see Donk kids so grown up! The Semwal twins are waiting for their GCSE results so that they can join Class 11 at Kaplani HS.”
Christine’s busy trip back to India was a wonderful opportunity to re-connect with so many of Saphara’s valued partners in India and, as always, helped to highlight just how important the Saphara Be the Change India and Girl Champions programmes are.
To find out more about our work in India and how you can support this vital work why not click below:
