48 Million adolescent girls across India drop out every year before they even complete their secondary education. That’s equivalent to the entire population of Spain. We believe in enabling of grassroots girl leaders through a cascading model done in conjunction with adequate knowledge, skills, and networks will directly challenge gender-regressive norms & bring about intergenerational change.
Reaching out extensively to the rural communities and conducting orientation workshops.
Delivering smartphones for life to our Girl Icons as well as an 18-month long data pack.
Conducting session online along with human-touch; done through a) on-ground mentorship provided by our Project Assistants who have been Girl Icons themselves, b) Girl Icon Alumni Network which provides scholarship, career development & placement as well as upskill opportunities and c) 3 District-Level Events are done throughout the year where the Girl Icons as well as local authorities are invited to confer the former with awards for their outstanding performance. A cascading model is done in conjunction with a) Social Action Project done with peer-members on social issues & reaching out to at least 100 community residents to reiterate what our Girl Icons has learned in their trainings as well putting the same to us and b) Providing a safe-space for our Girl Icons and peer-members to discuss their learnings.
The Girl Icon Program in 2015 initially started as a pilot with 30 Girls and with the advent of the pandemic it has now reached 5000 Girl Icons with 100,000 peer adolescent girls and 1 Million Community Members across the states of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Karnataka through their Girl Icon Program. We have been fortunate to have the support and consideration of the likes of Sony Music Global Social Justice Fund, Obama Foundation, Echidna, Malala Fund, UC Berkeley, Girls Opportunity Alliance among many others. By 2030, we aim to reach 10 Million adolescent girls more and empower each and everyone of them to become grassroot community leaders committing to intergeneration changes.
Initial hand-holding and extensive counselling of guardians and adolescent girls about gender-equality and accessibility is indispensable. Milaan Foundation does this by developing a combination of curriculum-based, community engagement, leadership and role-modelling experience for the Girl Icons enabling them not only individually but also encouraging them to build gender-positive communities.
