On the third and last day of workshop when the lead trainer asked a group of girls what they had learnt from the entire process, to her surprise they said, “confidence”. One said, “Ma’am we get confidence by seeing the way you interact with everyone and sharing our stories little by little has enabled us to get rid of the shyness.”

A young teenager confided into the trainer and said, “ I have never felt heard the way I have with you, thank you for making me feel that my thoughts are valid.”

Right before our team was about to leave a hub after completing the 3-days workshop, a teacher approached the lead trainer and said, “I have never seen our girls enjoy a session as much as they did in the last three days where not just the confident ones have polished their skills but the shy ones are now participating actively. Nobody wants you to leave.”

On inquiring the importance of stories, girls came forward to explain, “Listening to other people’s stories can inspire us, give us strength that we are not alone and motivate us to keep following our dreams. Listening to our stories may do the same for others’’

ITA in partnership with the School of Leadership Foundation has conducted a three-day training to foster soft skills including self-confidence and critical thinking in 90 GEEA (Girls Education & Enterprise Alliance) leaders including Siyani Sahelian alumni and Malala Champions hailing from Muzaffargarh, Bahawalpur and Rahim Yar Khan. The training ‘BOLO for Impact’ enables each beneficiary to practice their skills, not only on the topics of intervention but also on community organizing and mobilization for advocacy and local campaigns. The training provided a variety of experiences and multiple opportunities to GEEA Leaders through strengthening their leadership skills. Following are the key objective of the training:

• 90 girls (3 cohorts of 30 participants each); Rahimyar Khan, Bahawalpur, Muzaffargarh
• Learn transformative skills to become Champions and Stars for peer mentorship; amplify voice and influence action as agents of change; individually and/or create alliances.
• Prepare, plan and administer interventions at 3 levels, i.e. households, educational institutions and community; AND government institutions, parliamentarians and media.
• Address issues, solicit solutions and invite action as per needs of people at the three to six levels.

The 3-day skill development training for each batch was designed to help these young girls in exploring their strengths and capabilities. The 03 days of training took them of a self realisation journey to the need of recognizing the God gifted skills and bringing them to practice.

Under our partnership with EDTW, 200 of our graduated TVET beneficiaries go through a 3-month one-of-a-kind virtual training on enterprise development and honing their entrepreneurial side. The course is adapted to the beneficiary group and is designed to track progress and learning levels of the beneficiaries.

The SS Nesting manual has been designed by and for the Siyani Sahelian to help them make the transition from skill acquisition to enterprise development. The SS TVET graduates go through the 4-week program which is a mix of academic, case study, activity-based and peer group learning models.