A three-day training and capacity building workshop for 30 peer leader girls from eight slums of the city commenced on Monday here. This is the second phase training for the girls from city slums, who were provided introductory training during July this year.
The peer leader girls named as 'Pragati Sathi' were involved in community awareness and mapping activities under Socially Smart Bhubaneswar initiative of the BMC and Bhubaneswar Smart City limited (BSCl).
Educating the peer leaders was necessitated as the development of the Smart City is just development based on structures, IT, infrastructure and technology. The Smart City proposal was also having a focus area to develop the society as a whole and especially the people staying in slum areas across the Smart District.
The peer leader girls have been very effective in taking up issues faced by the communities in their respective slums and working towards resolution of those issues with the help and support of the authorities. Apart from the civic body, several public interface programmes are also being conducted with police and other Government agencies, with the help of the peer leaders from various slums in the city.
In the three-day programme, the peer leader girls will be provided training and tips on leadership development and adolescent health issues.
The major objectives under the training programme include bringing about clear understanding among the participants on the second phase modules and the themes thereof, building adolescent girls’ friendly skills that would be helpful to pass on the scheduled messages to the leaders and the ASHGs subsequently, building not only the participants’ art of communication but their attitude as well so that they seriously and effectively deliver the training to leaders and bring about necessary changes among the latter and through them among the adolescent girls.
Other topics included menstrual management, understanding the reasons for child marriage, consequences of child marriage and steps to prevent child marriage.