Shreeja Team gets two esteemed visitors from the Football World!
Shreeja Team at Kalna, Purba Bardhaman were extremely elated to meet with Mr. Pathikrit Sarkar (former Assistant coach at North East Leeds FC & owner of Fast Sports and Management) and Mr. Hirok Saha, Coach of East Bengal FC Youth Academy! The entire 2nd February 2022 was filled with laughter, fun, play and learning for Shreeja girls & their coaches at the centre. Mr. Saha gave a motivational talk to our children which certainly charged them up to work towards their dreams! This was followed by an intense training session which lasted 90 minutes for Shreeja Football Coaching Team (Raghu, Tilak and Manu da) taken by Mr. Saha. The session covered topics on how to improve the techniques, treat children as coaches, the nutritional requirements of a child as she/he grows up among other relevant ones.
On 3rd February Shreeja India observed her 5th birthday. On this day the students of two centres of Shreeja observed some cultural functions. Program team of Kolkata also gave some virtual performances.
Shreeja India won the 'NGO of the year' awards under the Women's empowerment category at the 2nd NGO Awards Summit organized by NGOStory, trophy & Rs 25K.
Dhartigram Girls reached Rajnagar for Football Tournament Practice, an historical event for Shreeja India. Dhatrigram team overwhelmed with Rajnagar hospitality. Thus we were able to build a good bonding and friendship among the Shreeja girls of two Shreeja centres.
Dhartigram Girls at Arambagh tournament - won 1st match 4-0 then loses semi final 4-3 on tie-breaker.
On the occasion of International Women's Day 2022, Shreeja Team got together to discuss Informed Imagination, work at Shreeja India to empower women and also interact with the supporters of this initiative.
Some beautiful and powerful messages were written and painted by our Shreeja children on the occasion of women’s day, 8th March 2022. We came together as a Team including the teachers and Shreeja children from both the Shreeja centres (Birbhum and Purba Bardhaman) to fill in white blank chart papers with colours and expressions of hope, imagination and empowerment to honour and celebrate all women across the globe. Most importantly, the Shreeja Girls took the opportunity to celebrate each other while pledging to continue their work towards empowering other women in their community!
Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Kolkata has supported Shreeja India in creating two extremely rich libraries at both its centres at Birbhum and Purba Bardhaman respectively! We have received over 2000 story books and a large number of academic books for the first-generation learning tribal girls that the esteemed Institute has helped to collect from book stores, city schools and well-wishers from across Kolkata and Germany. In addition we have received pencils and bags for the children too!
Shreeja India Purba Bardhaman Team won the prestigious Kolkata-Naples Friendship Cup on 15th May 2022, at Kolkata. In a grueling final Shreeja India defeated Kolkata Police Team on tie breaker!!
The Women’s Football tournament was organized at the Kolkata Police quarter Grounds, Tollygunge jointly by the Civic Authorities and Italian Consulate, Kolkata with the support from Naples Municipality, Italy.
Eight teams from Bengal — Roshni Youth Club, Durbar, Police Athletic Club, Shanti Mullick Academy, Slums Football Foundation, Shreeja India, Sonarpur Reliable Sporting Academy and Aruar Udayachal Club participated in the tournament. Sonali Soren of Shreeja India scored eight goals in three matches and was adjudged the woman of the match (in the Final) and woman of the series.
Shreeja Team who played - Purnima Hembram, Sonia Khatoon, Sonali Soren, Kumkum Soren. Swapna Tudu, Shiuli Soren, Tumpa Hembram, Baisakhi Mondal, Rekha Hansda, Mou Sarkar and Coach Raghu Murmu.
Building Strong Cultural Belief with Fun and Awareness at Shreeja India.
Shreeja India observed 'World Environment Day' on June 5th to promote environmental awareness and conservation. Tribal dance, Poems, environmental conservation awareness speech, a musical dance skit, and planting saplings marked off the World Environment Day at both our Shreeja India facilities.
Click on the link below and watch videos on how Shreeja Team observed 'World Environment Day' 2022
Go, In first vidision nam akadang.” (“Mom. I have got first division.") “Baba, In Madhyamik passed akadaing” ("Dad, I have passed the Madhyamik.") 60 Santhal villages in Birbhum and Purba Bardhaman where Shreeja India operates were abuzz with these statements. Shreeja Girls not only exceled in football but they have also started getting first divisions in their school-leaving examinations as well! Some of the top marks are: Neha (442) 91.45% ; Rupdhan (443) 91.80%; Oli (418) 82.36% ;Urmila (395) 72.99%.
Sonali Soren of Shreeja India was the highest scorer in the U-17 National Football Championship currently being held at Guwahati, Assam. Sonali scored nine goals in the last three matches (two against Rajasthan, two against Tamil Nadu, and five against J & K). Here is a report from Kick-Off, the Bengali online magazine published by IFA under the title: Deluge of Goals, Bengal in Last Eight… All the best Bengal Tigresses
Parent-Teacher Meeting (PTM) at the Shreeja India, Birbhum Center
After a span of two long years, On 28th June, a parent-teacher meeting (PTM) was conducted at the Shreeja India, Birbhum Center. It was an exciting day for all of us as the Shreeja India Team got to interact with equally enthusiastic parents/guardians about a lot many relevant topics.
Hari Dasgupta, Country Head focused on the brilliant performance of Shreeja class XI girls in this year’s Higher Secondary examinations. In fact, Neha Mardi, who has scored 91% marks this year addressed the parents with an extempore presentation on how she has benefitted from Shreeja India in her journey to academic excellence.
As the Program Manager, Somasree Basu highlighted the children’s overall performance, discipline, and plans to integrate the community with all our activities. Senior Shreeja Girls will soon get training on livelihood opportunities, I mentioned to them.
Some parents also shared their experiences and offered feedback for Shreeja India on this endeavor.
Shreeja program manager Somasree Basu and Program officer Kritika Rai have introduced ‘Know thy Environment’ project to Vidushee teachers of Rajnagar, Birbhum. By this project they will know about their surrounding environment and will show it by some project works.
Mr. Pathikrit Sarkar (former Assistant coach at North East Leeds FC & owner of Fast Sports and Management) visited Dhatrigram, Purba Bardhaman with a Formar Sports woman Reshma and some senior coaches to train Coaches of both Shreeja centers.
Tennis legend Serena Williams has announced her retirement from tennis this week. “I’m evolving away from tennis, toward other things that are important to me. I don’t want it to be over, but at the same time I’m ready for what’s next”, She said in an interview.
At the same time thousands of miles away, a seventeen-year-old Santhal girl hugged her mother in front of NSC Bose airport gate at Dumdum, Kolkata and uttered the same sentiment solemnly, “I’m ready for what’s next …”
This young girl is our own Shreeja Girl, Sonali Soren. She took her life’s first flight from Kolkata to Bhubaneshwar, on 10th August, 2022 to participate at the trials to be in the India Team at the U-17 FIFA World Cup to be held in New Delhi, in November 2022. Her proud mother, Shreeja Coach, Raghu and Shreeja’s program manager looked on.
A free eye camp 'Mukto Drishti' was organized on 15th August (75th Independence Day) at Shreeja India Birbhum centre for the underprivileged rural population in Rajnagar. The beneficiaries not only received free eye checkup but were also screened for free cataract surgeries. Many of them received eye glasses for a nominal value as well apart from other required medicines. We are really thankful to Soroptimist International of Calcutta, and Nanritam (a non-profit organization from Purulia) for making the much needed eye camp a success! Over 150 people were benefitted from the initiative. Shreeja India teachers and senior students worked very hard to invite and bring people from distant villages.
Seven patients had successful Cataract surgeries and 15 villagers got their eyeglasses after checkup at the free eye camp organized by Soroptimist International in collaboration with Shreeja India and Nanritam (Lokeshwarananda Eye Foundation Unit) on 19th and 20th August 2022. This is for the first time Shreeja India organized a health intervention. This event has taught us how to deal with ‘ignorance induced fear’ of the rural people.
A special thanks to our Rajnagar Team for managing the event so well, and of course to Rupali and Purnima, two of our senior Shreeja girls who unraveled as community leaders during the initiative!
5th Jan was a beautiful and cold day in Birbhum... ever brightened by the warmth, glittering laughter and cheerfulness of the Shreeja Girls as the 89 of them traveled together to Narasinghapur for a PICNIC! Good food, dancing, ludo, puzzles, and, of course, football... It was a day full of engagements and activities for the girls. For many of them, it was their first experience of a 'picnic', which made it extra special for them!
School dropout rates have always been higher in Rajnagar and so have been the cases of early marriages in the adjoining tribal villages. Stricken by poverty and pressed by social pressure, getting the daughters married off at the earliest seems like an easier option for most of the parents in these communities. However, a few things have started to change now and for good! All the girls who are part of Shreeja India academy for the past three years are still continuing their studies and many of them already got admitted to colleges this year! They are also playing Football every day. The girls have chosen to become socio-economically independent first and marry later. They are now coaching the younger children in their villages under Shreeja India’s supervision and earning fiscally.
We are in fact more delighted with the responses from their parents. While initially we were a bit skeptical about commencing class XI and XII schooling under the pandemic scenario, Shreeja Local Manager was approached by the parents of girls who have passed their class X Board Examinations in 2020. They requested him to start the classes immediately. The parents are so happy about Shreeja services and the improvements of their daughters’ performance that all the girls have now taken admission in class XI and XII of local institutions only to remain with us!!! We have now started out-of-school teaching for class XI and XII in our Rajnagar facility.
We feel sheer joy with the confidence and trust that the girls and their parents have bestowed on us. We are beginning this New Year 2021 with the hope of sharing more growth and happiness with all our Shreeja Girls, their families, our Team and with all our well wishers across the world!
The entire Shreeja India Team heartily thanked UK’s leading sports brand FAST Sports and Management, Italy’s top sportswear company Macron and India’s beloved SC East Bengal (EB) for their continued valuable support towards Shreeja India’s sports-based education undertaking to uplift tribal girls from rural West Bengal. On 19th January 2021, eminent leaders comprising of Sri Indrajit Roy (Vice President, EB), Sri Debabrata Sarkar and Sri Ajit Banerjee(Executive Members, EB), Sri Pathikrit Sarkar (Founder, Fast Sports), Janab Istiyak Ali (General Secretary, Bengal Hockey Federation) handed over 80 sports kits from Macron and Fast sports (jerseys, pants and socks) for Shreeja Girls at SC East Bengal premises. We are simply overwhelmed with this fantastic beginning of 2021.
On 21st January 2021, Soroptimist International (SI) organized an enriching international seminar on the much relevant topic in today’s world, ‘ENDING CHILD MARRIAGE – On the Road to Equality’. The host of the webinar, SI President Sharon Fisher from Canada was joined by Mandy Sanghera, a Human Rights Activist & Somasree Basu from Shreeja India as speakers. The webinar witnessed an active participation by 400 women leaders of Soroptimist International Clubs from across the globe.
Shreeja India Team wishes to thank Soroptimist International for giving our organization a strong platform to elucidate on how football-based education can play an imperative role in empowering women and ending child marriage.
Somasree made a beautiful presentation and then had a fruitful discussion on Shreeja India’s ongoing program Beyond Football and its role in engaging, educating and enriching tribal girls from rural West Bengal. The group also conversed about how the same program can be replicated in any part of the world to empower girls and their families for subsequent generations.
Shreeja India girls won two prestigious local Football tournaments. One of them organized by Birbhum Freedom Biker’s Club and the other being RajnagarAdibashi Football tournament. Post lockdown, these have been two of the first matches played by Shreeja Girls. They played brilliantly! At the Birbhum Freedom Biker’s Club tournament, Purnima, Ruma, Lalita and Mongoli from Shreeja India became the goal scorers of the day. Our dear Sraboni was also awarded the best player of the tournament for her fantastic performance throughout the game! This wonderful news has also been covered by a leading newspaper of West Bengal, Anandabazzar Patrika. At the Rajnagar Adivasi Football Tournament, Oli became girl of the match while Purnima became girl of the seires!! We are extremely proud of you Girls! Raja da has been a wonderful and dedicated coach to them.
Shreeja India’s Beyond Football Program has started its second chapter at Dhatrigram, Kalna I Block of Purba Burdwan district in West Bengal from Feb. 01, 2021, in collaboration with Soroptimist International. More than 50 girls already registered with the program from 12 villages within a month. Founded in 1921, Soroptimist International is a dedicated global volunteer service organization for women. With 72,000 club members in 121 countries, the organization works at a local, national and international level to Educate, Empower and Enable opportunities for women and girls.
Ms. Mukul Debnath, a retired government school P.T teacher joined as Shreeja India’s local Manager at Dhatrigram. Ms. Debnath is an avid sports-woman who represented West Bengal in Kabaddi in 1976 and 1977. Raghunath Murmu joined as football coach at Dhatrigram. Raghu is also an ardent footballer with a trail of achievements. He played in Mohun Bagan Academy for many years and had also represented India in many international matches. He had also played in the Manchester League as part of a tournament held in the UK.
On 3rd February 2021, Shreeja India Team celebrated the organization’s 4th Foundation day. What is really amazing is how all of us are continually growing together since the inception of the organization! While our faculty and program team are more confident than ever before with the endeavour, our dear Shreeja Girls are no less with unbounded energy, vigour, positivity and self-belief. This enthusiasm got beautifully reflected in their performances while celebrating the unity and ethos of Shreeja India. Shreeja Children danced, sang, recited and shared what they penned down on their experience at the Shreeja India Academy. They participated in games as well. Our teachers on the other hand shared their thoughts and encouraged the girls to live better.
Shreeja India and Soroptimist International of Calcutta united to celebrate International Women’s Day 2021(8th March) with an enriching discussion on ‘Social Issues Affecting Young Women, And the Legal Resources Available to Them’. The session was particularly organized for the First-generation learning tribal girls from Birbhum, under Shreeja India’s ongoing Beyond Football program. This much needed awareness initiative was attended by 25 participants and 50 Shreeja children. The program was hosted by Ms. Achina Kundu, President, Soroptimist International, Calcutta and paneled by extremely powerful set of women who have been fighting for women’s rights for decades now – Ms. Shelley Ghosh Chakraborty (Prof. JCC Law College), Ms. Anuradha Kapoor (Founder, Swayam) Ms. Tapoti Bhowmick (Founder, Sanlaap). Mr. Hari Dasgupta, Country Head of Shreeja India introduced Shreeja India’s Beyond Football program to the participants during the commencement of the program.
Here are some snippets from the discussion:
Ms. Shelley Ghosh Chakraborty said, “We as women are taught to accept that we are less than men since centuries. We are told to keep quiet even when abused or exploited. That is why even today, many women are still not aware of their rights. It is only when we are aware of our rights that we can fight for ourselves and for others like us with confidence and sense of empowerment.” She discussed the Domestic Violence Act 2005 with the children. She made them aware about the support system of Protection officers and the roll of judiciary in protecting women’s rights.
While speaking to the girls, Ms. Anuradha Kapoor said, “For last 200-300 years women have been fighting for their rights and since then we have come a long way. The celebration of International Women’s Day is important because this day is about reflecting on our past as women, remembering the difficult fights fought by our women in history which has brought us a certain amount of liberty and equality today. Also, it is about viewing our position now as women in society and accordingly it is about carving out our path ahead so that we can continue to fight for an equitable society.” She also explained, “Inequality and biasness starts from home, then moves at work and on the road. It is everywhere. Laws can’t help women alone if society does not change. Society is us! Let us be the change and help the people around us to change as well”.
Ms. Tapoti Bhowmick shared many valuable experiences from her work with women survivors. She said, “When working for women’s rights and gender equity, it is of utmost importance to not just work with women alone but to work with boys, girls, men and women alike. The fight is not against men; rather it is against a mindset of patriarchy”. She discussed the warning signs and situations that can lure or push girls into early marriages, trafficking and a lifetime of abuse and asked the girls to stay aware of such indicators that may come from their close ones as well.
The panellists informed the girls about the various services available to them if they wanted to complain against any social evils happening with them or in their community. They asked the girls to never stop fighting for their rights, to never back down from helping other women and to create a support system to lift each other up.
Overall, it was a very apt and enriching discussion.
We have completed our first round of relief distribution in Purba Bardhaman on 22nd May 2021! Each distribution kit contained considerable number of pulses, soybean, cooking oil, potatoes, spices, salt, antiseptic soaps, sanitizer bottles and masks for the adults and children of the intervening 20 tribal villages. We are grateful to our Shreeja Girls who volunteered, to our beneficiary community for their support and the local Team for their dedicated and meticulous organization of the program while maintaining all covid-19 protocols.
On 23rd May, 2021, Shreeja India distributed essential ration and hygiene kits to 100 households as part of the first phase of Covid-Relief distribution in Birbhum. We are immensely proud of our senior Shreeja Girls who not only helped their teachers in packing the kits but also actively mobilized the community during the distribution. We are simultaneously indebted to our proactive Team at work for their relentless effort. Amidst the lockdown and troubled climatic conditions, they continued to meticulously organize and execute this entire process to ensure that we are able to reach every household in need. Shreeja India's Covid relief work was funded by a well-known donor house and some of our valued members.
Saving our planet, lifting people out of poverty, advancing economic growth... these are one and the same fight. We must connect the dots between climate change, water scarcity, energy shortages, global health, food security and women's empowerment. Solutions to one problem must be solutions for all." -- Ban Ki-moon
(5th June), On World Environment Day 2021, the entire Shreeja India Team pledged to plant 500 trees in Birbhum and Purba Bardhaman district within 12 months, as a small conservation effort and to protect our planet. We recognize that the frequently occurring super storms and increased prevalence of infectious diseases are one of the major consequences of the ongoing environmental degradation and impending climate change impacts. Hence, it is imperative to act now more than ever to conserve our ecosystem and protect our biodiversity. As an organization promoting education, we at Shreeja India are working simultaneously to instill these key values in our children and equip them with the necessary wisdom to become the green leaders of tomorrow!
Shreeja girls participated in Sonarkundu Tournament
Shreeja girls participated in Manikdihi Tournament.
Aruna Bag selected for senior Bengal Football team.
Sonali Soren, a Shreeja Girl from Purba Bardhaman Center won the prestigious ‘The Telegraph Education Foundation’ award for ‘Outstanding Talent in Sports’ at 'The Telegraph School Awards’ 2021'. She says, “People still think that Football is a man’s game! It is not. I intend to erase these misconceptions and break all the gender barriers that exist in people’s minds. I want to play football for India one day and make my Nation proud.
She was 17 years old at the time and already had an inspiring track record of playing for the prestigious East Bengal Club in Kolkata league. She became the best player of the Bengal State level Football tournament for consecutively three years (2018, 2019 and 2020). Most importantly, Sonali has been a community leader and is one of the first women football players from her village, Badhagacghi at Purba Bardhaman district in West Bengal.
More on Sonali Soren - The Telegraph Education Foundation (TTEF) had their online award ceremony yesterday (30/10/2021). She was declared as an outstanding talent in Sports jointly with Koustav Chatterjee (Chess). Listen to Barry O'Brien's comments.
Let's wish her luck in the coming years.
The renowned footballer Bidesh Bose visited at practice of Shreeja girls.
A recent report by World Health Organization (WHO) states that nearly 1 in 3 women are subjected to abuse in their lifetime. Cases of Violence against Women (VAW) during the recent pandemic has exacerbated and remain devastatingly pervasive. This has to stop. On 25th November 2021, as we observed the ‘International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women’, we pledged to stand up and end gender violence.
We had a conversation with our Shreeja Girls regarding school dropouts and how it can be prevented. After some initial sensitization, some of the girls came forward and voluntarily shared their feelings on the topic.
"If we quit studying, our family will push us to marry and we will be "bandhi hui gai" (like a cow tethered to a pole) who will be completely dependent on her husband and in-laws," said Rupali. But Seema had something else to add, "If I continue studying, I will marry into a good family that will respect me for the job I will accomplish. This is why I will not dropout from my studies."
Shreeja India is trying its best to develop a holistic approach that will help to mitigate school dropouts and other social evils and give our girls a better quality of life. Let’s all join hands and make sure every girl lives their dreams.
Shreeja Girls competed against eight teams and won three consecutive matches of 20 mins in a day. They played in Shantipur club Tournament at Shantipur, Nadia district, and in the Women’s Tournament (D.T.P.S. Sanghasree Club) Durgapur. Sonali has yet again won the 'women of the series'.
Sure, game time is thrilling and fun. But, it’s a lot more enjoyable if you’ve put in the time to put your best foot forward. As an outcome, the victory spurred them to wake up early the next day to practice. Now they are well acquainted that 'Championships are won at practice'.
Shreeja Girls won the Durgapur tournament.
Rajnagar Girl's Match at Ukhra(They won the semi-finals)
East Bengal Football Club invited Shreeja Girls for a felicitation event on January, 25, 2020. Six Shreeja Footballers from Football & Beyond program along with Shreeja Coach Kazi Raja, Program Manager Somasree Basu and Shreeja Caretaker Santosh attended the program.
The girls got a personal tour of the entire club premises, received the rare opportunity to witness a live practice session on the field and had the chance to play on the historic ground as well. This event has highly motivated the entire team of girls to work harder, dream bigger and perform better.
On March 8, 2020, our teachers sensitized them about the history of International Women’s Day. They were told about the sacrifices women and few men have made to ensure that women get equitable opportunities in society to become empowered.
Shreeja Foundation day was celebrated on 2nd February at Rajnagar, Birbhum. The day was extra special for the entire Team as the organization completed its 3 years! Shreeja Girls had put up an extraordinary performance on the day with dedicated support of their teachers at the facility. The annual prize distribution for the most regular students and the best performers in Football and Academics was also held on the same day..
On June 5th, we observed World Environment Day with our girls at Rajnagar. They were sensitized about the present ecological concerns. The girls also learned about eco-friendly steps that they can individually take to help protect our environment.
On 15th August, our entire team of teachers and girls gathered at the Shreeja Academy in Rajnagar, Birbhum to commemorate the 72nd Independence Day of India.
On 14th November, we celebrated Children’s Day with songs, dances, recitations, quizzes performed by both the teachers and girls. Shreeja Girls also received gifts from their loving teachers.
Dedicating the day to their teachers, Shreeja Girls organized a beautiful program for them on 5th September. Shreeja Teacher, Ria Sarkar talked to them about Dr. S. Radhakrishnan and his valuable contributions to our society.
The increasing incidents of sexual abuse and harassment among children reported across the nation point out how they become victims not only in unknown settings but also in their own homes and classrooms, most often by the people they trust or are familiar with. Hence, it is imperative that they become well informed with relevant and correct information on this matter including the knowledge of ‘Safe & Unsafe Touch’. They need to be taught several things to ensure their own safety as well as safety of their siblings and friends.
Keeping these thoughts in mind, Shreeja India recently conducted an interactive session on ‘Safe and Unsafe Touch’, that covered personal safety rules, dealing with the perpetrator, supports available, rights of the child and few other associated topics. The participants were also shown an educational video on the same. This is the first in line of many such sessions on ‘Health and Safety of girls’ workshop series. The session was attended by 65 Shreeja Girls.
Meet Shaina, mother of Chumki, a class IX student of Shreeja India. She along with her daughter and 55 adolescent children attended a Menstrual Health and Hygiene awareness workshop on 27th April, 2022 organized at Shreeja India centre, Kalna I, Purba Bardhaman. During the workshop, as a team through various activities and knowledge sharing, many age-old myths and superstitions that cloak the tabooed concept of Menstruation were broken and reframed with logic and science. For the first time the participants became aware of the science behind puberty and periods! While many queries came up from the children about the topic, notably Shaina emerged as one of the most vocal participants.
She shared the challenges she faced as a woman in both her natal and in-law’s families during her menstrual days. “Didi, in our time, we couldn’t utter the term periods publicly or even talk about the problems we were having. Not only then, but even now we as women are taught that ‘periods’ is a time when our body rejects dirty blood and hence, we are barred from participating in many daily activities, eating good food and are looked down upon. This program has been really eye-opening for me. I will try and pass on the information gathered here to my next generation so that they don’t suffer like me”. This experience has prompted Shreeja India Team to continue to conduct awareness programs, not only for the children but by also involving the parents and community.
Shreeja Girls’ tryst with beautiful and thought provoking tales has continued for a month now. Thanks to Panchatattva team Ms Sangeeta Sahgil and Ms. Poonam. S, Joshi! On 28th January 2021, the 4th story telling session was organized at the Shreeja India Academy, Rajnagar. The story shared during the session was about a kid named Naren and his journey towards controlling his grief and anger, self discovery and finding friendship and peace. The narrative helped our girls to realize that while it is good to let out negative feelings and anger but simultaneously it is equally important to understand what the best way of catharsis is.
Instead of getting violent, one can train her/his mind to sublimate the negative emotions into constructively working on things they love. These effective outlets could be painting, dancing, singing and other creative pursuits or playing a sport like Football and other games or simply choosing to be at a place that makes one happy or engage one’s self with activities that give joy to the person. Our girls reciprocated with their similar experiences in life and how they now realize the significance of appropriate management of anger and other pessimistic feelings. With a small sabbatical in between, we plan to resume the valuable sessions again from next month!
We had the privilege of welcoming Dr. Sheet (Deputy Director, Directorate of Horticulture, Birbhum, Govt. of West Bengal) to Shreeja India Academy, Rajnagar on 24th February 2021. He conducted an enriching workshop on kitchen gardening with Shreeja Girls and Nutri-Homes beneficiaries. Dr. Sheet had a stirring discussion and explained to them how they can maximize on their spaces available for farming, grow quality organic crops, and create vermin composts. He further elaborated on Birbhum’s crop calendar and how the girls can assure good crops in their gardens across the year. With girls of 70 households from 10 intervening villages already part of the ongoing Nutri-homes project, this training has been crucial to both the beneficiaries and the Shreeja India Team alike. As more such training programs are planned in continuation to this one, we are positive that we will be able to further scale up the Nutri-Homes program. This intiative has ensured regular food security, nutritious food intake and resilience from food crises to our deprived beneficiaries. Now we also plan to introduce livelihood opportunity and income generation for women through this endeavour in the near future.
We are grateful for the support we are receiving from the Horticulture dept. and from all our well-wishers. Without them, this journey towards growth and development of women and gender justice would not have been possible!
Olympism is a philosophy of life which promotes sport at the service of humanity. It seeks to bring synergy through an alliance of sports, education and culture. At Shreeja India, we aspire to do the same. We strive to instill the core values of Olympism - Excellence, Respect and Friendship - into the lives of Shreeja Girls. On ‘National Sports Day’, 29th August 2021, we conducted the first in the line of a number of special ‘Mental Health Workshops’ for 30 Shreeja senior Football players.
The workshop was activity-oriented and covered matters related to practicing positive thoughts & IRR technique, committing to mental wellness, and using correct body language on and off the field among other things. The girls were also shown educational videos that promote motivation, team spirit, and confidence. We have also planned a few follow up workshops soon on similar topics.
There has been a whopping 50% increase in CHILD MARRIAGE cases in West Bengal alone, during the last 24 months of pandemic stimulated lockdown. Realizing the gravity of the situation, on 4th October, 2021, we at Shreeja India conducted an interactive awareness program on child marriage for 55 Shreeja children present in the class.
During the session, we discussed the concept of child marriage, its causes and consequences, and most importantly how to report such cases, the legal and other support systems available.
Interestingly, when we were discussing the mental trauma of the survivors, many of the girls could relate to similar instances of young girls in their communities. The program also discussed how we can render support to such children. Sharing of personal experiences further enriched the session and at the same time provided them a safe space to freely voice their thoughts and feelings. The workshop concluded with an awareness video on the same topic.
Shreeja Girls embrace their artistic sides! Our early recollections of creating art are most likely associated with the thrill and absolute joy of receiving new colour pencils. It was a beautiful experience to witness the same happiness among Shreeja Girls this week at Birbhum!
With the intent to bridge the gap between urban-rural education, we conducted a three days 'Art Workshop' for our Shreeja Girls by connecting with them through the smart TV. Playing with glue, tissue paper, and acrylics, they transformed their imaginations into reality by creating giraffes while recycling old papers. In the images given below, you can catch a glimpse of the process of creative exploration and expression of our Shreeja Girls. It was a valuable experience altogether and we'll be conducting more positive workshops in the coming years.
Special Thanks to Alakananda Di for this amazing workshop, we truly appreciate your valuable time spent helping our girls get acquainted with their creative side.
On November 9, 2019, an enriching awareness program on the concerns of early marriages and trafficking was conducted at the academy for Shreeja Girls and their parents. The program was attended by our 80 Shreeja Girls and more than 50 parents from across 10 tribal villages. The occasion was graced by Mr. Sanchayan Banerjee, Office-in-Charge, Rajnagar Police Station. The parents then cleared their various queries concerning the Shreeja endeavour and pledged full support to the program.
In early March, as we were slowly getting acquainted with rising cases of ‘Corona Virus – COVID-19’ pandemic, we at Shreeja India felt that it was absolutely essential to sensitize our girls at the academy on the same. Somasree Basu, Shreeja Program Manager organized an awareness talk about the contagion, the precautionary measures involved, the myths circulating among people that they need to unfollow, the symptoms and all other information concerning the topic. We also visited our intervening villages with the children to sensitize them about the dos and don’ts during the pandemic before closing the academy during this period to ensure safety of the children.
Shreeja Girls got a visit from the Soroptimist Internationals Team of South Kolkata in March 2020. The girls and the team had a good interaction and exchanged talks about their lives and education.
