A woman going to work while her husband stays home to take care of their baby; such a scenario though not common, can occasionally be seen in urban areas but in a remote village of Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh, such a set up is unheard of. That is why I was pleasantly surprised to meet Aganwadi worker Manorama, her husband Sanjay Kumar and their five-month-old daughter Aarti at the two-day gender training organized by CARE India through its Join My Village (JMV) Maternal Health Program in...
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As the world prepares for the Summer Olympic Games in London this month and the National Olympic Team of Malawi is now in the UK to do its final preparations, I started thinking about the impact that sports has had on the communities that Join My Village supports.  With two of the eight Malawian Olympic athletes being female, could we see more of this in the future? As the Olympic games show, whether one is in the more developed world or the other way around,...
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Big things come in small packages and 26-year-old Neelam Maurya personifies this adage. At barely 5ft tall, Neelam looks like a schoolgirl in a sari. I met Neelam, an ASHA bahu, at a Join My Village gender sensitization training for ASHA, Anganwadi workers and Auxilliary Nurse Midwives in the Nindoora block of Barabanki. The idea was to make the ASHA workers and others sensitive toward gender discrimination so they can further the message in their villages. During the discussion, participants said all girls in cities...
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During my last visit to some of our Join My Village scholarship girls, I asked them if at all they had any special messages for Join My Village followers. The place was quiet as the girls tried to think about what to say and perhaps, they did not expect me to ask them this question.“Tell them they should come down to Malawi and let’s share the experience.  Because we know that we are great friends who have never met but wish each other good,” Catherin...
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Family isn’t always those related to you by blood. The young girls of Meera Kishori Samooh of the Gudaiya number one village in Bahraich district have proven this. The Meera Kishori Samooh is part of CARE’s Join My Village Girls’ Leadership Program (GLP). The program, through its field staff, provides guidance and support in developing interpersonal and leadership skills among 10-16 year old girls in rural areas. This is done by organizing them in ‘kishori samooh’ or adolescent groups. The girls in the group meet...
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