GALVANIZING ACTION FOR LIFE SKILLS EDUCATION, EMPOWERMENT OF ADOLESCENTS AND ENDING HARMFUL SOCIAL PRACTICES

Life Skills Education with UNFPA

An Initiative In Partnership With United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)

The partnership between GIWA and the UNFPA has already begun to create a future in which the women and youth of Uttarakhand are receiving access to information, skills that expand their consciousness of self and others, and more able to utilize social services.They are already seeing improved health and well-being; and are empowered to make informed decisions that result in positive outcomes for their lives and society as a whole.

The importance of protecting, nurturing and celebrating the girl child is being inculcated in the participants as a core theme throughout the programme. These outcomes are achieved through the programs and initiatives designed within the goals and framework of UNFPA’s established procedures.

Life Skills Education, quite simply, promotes ‘Rights and Choices for All’. It is a system of value-based courses and classes designed to train students on the inner aspects of their personalities to address issues such as low self-confidence and self-esteem that so often lead to major problems in their futures.

Life Skills are social and psychological abilities that enable humans to deal effectively with the demands and challenges of life. For students, Life Skills improve their listening, reading, writing and communication skills. If given effectively, it improves problem solving skills, develops interpersonal skills, creates ability to think out of the box, builds confidence, determination, and creates positivity & cooperation skills.

More importantly, Life Skills teaches teenagers to socialize, identify their dreams, realize how to achieve those dreams, identify the obstacles lying on the way and ways to get rid of them, and to take responsibility and create leadership qualities.

Some of the adolescents in the Life Skills programme had the great opportunity to share their learnings with the Hon’ble President of India Shri Ramnath Kovind during his visit to Parmarth Niketan.