The Girls Who Have Never Played Anything
In this male-dominated society where girls are not wanted, we set-up a sports class to build confidence, self-worth, and discover playing.
About You
Contact Information
Title
Ms.
First name
Jenny
Last name
Steeves
Your job title
Senior Project Manager
Name of your organization
Pardada Pardadi Educational Society
Organization type
Non-profit
Annual budget/currency
INR 21,017,700.00 Do not publish.
Location
Project Street Address
Malakpur Road
Project City
Anupshahar
Project Province/State
Bulandshahar District in the state of Uttar Pradesh
Project Postal/Zip Code
Project Country
India
Your idea
Choose your sport: (check all that apply)
Softball
If you chose "other" for Sport, please define in 1-2 words below
More, but can't choose
What approach does your initiative incorporate?
Capacity Building
Year the initiative began (yyyy)
2006
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If your project has a website, paste the web address here:
Plot your innovation within the discovery framework:
Barrier
Lack of parity in facilities, equipment and funding
Insight
Let girls lead
This field has not been completed.
Name Your Project
The Girls Who Have Never Played Anything
Describe Your Idea
In this male-dominated society where girls are not wanted, we set-up a sports class to build confidence, self-worth, and discover playing.
Innovation
What is your signature innovation, your new idea, in one sentence?
In this male-dominated society where girls are not wanted, we set-up a sports class to build confidence, self-worth, and discover playing.
How many people does your innovation serve or plan to serve? Exactly who will benefit?
All 1,000 students will benefit from the sports program.
We are currently expanding our school at a fast pace, as we started with 45 girls in 2000. We have plans to continue to promote our school model (including the sports program) to other rural areas in India, with the hopes it will spread to all developing nations.
Do you have any existing partnerships? If so, please list and describe.
We don’t have any partnerships for our sports class, but we do have many for funding other areas of our charity:
• Axis Bank Foundation - Supports Sponsor-a-child program.
• Bharti Foundation - Partner for K through 5th Classes.
• Dawat Basmati Rice and MCKS Food for hungry Foundation - Gives us rice for meals.
• Dupont’s Employees Voluntary Contribution Fund – Support for Rags to Pads Project.
• Ford Foundation – Give us money for our pre-primary school and marketing efforts.
• IDiscoverI – Gives money towards our Exposure Trip program.
• Pakhar Foundation – Supports Sponsor-a-child program
• R& PM Edelmen – Supports Sponsor-a-child program and provides help with PR efforts.
• S. M. Sehgal Foundation – Gave money for school buses.
• Xerox India –Provides vocational training support and help with marketing efforts.
• Youth Reach – Provides training, sends us volunteers, and gives money towards our Exposure Trip program.
In which sector do these partners work? (Check all that apply)
Citizen sector (non profits, NGOs) , Private sector .
How do you implement your innovation and apply it to the challenge/problem you are addressing?
We need to upgrade our sports class to having a sports program run by woman trained in sports education. Our current sports class has two problems:
1) Needs a female teacher. There aren’t any female teacher sports teachers in India willing to come to our school, located in a very poor and rural area. We have resorted to hiring a male teacher, with just a high school diploma and no formal training, to run the class. But in this conservative society, our students would be much more open to sports if their teacher was female.
2) Needs an experienced sports teacher. We need someone who will enthusiastically encourage girls to try sports in a positive and nurturing way, and serve as a role model to our 1,000 students, which will help us break down gender stereotypes and show these children the joys of being a child.
Our innovation: We will send one of our graduates to a college to complete a sports teacher program. Upon completion, she will run our sports program.
Impact
Provide one sentence describing your impact/intended impact
Learning sports from a female teacher will teach them self-worth, life skills, new opportunities in life and the joys of being a child.
What does impact/success look like? Please list any tangible measures of the impact of your innovation
Success would measured by seeing more confidence in our students. We would also want to see girl sports programs spread to other schools in rural India. An interest in girl sports would also encourage local colleges to offer sports programs (very few do) and help improve existing sports programs to deal with children who have no experience with playing or with sports.
Local communities will see the increased confidence in their daughters and value them more. Girls will have more confidence to go after what they want to do in life. More girls will see the value of playing sports.
Is there a chance that your project could change policy (within an institution or government)?
Absolutely. We believe that when parents see schools providing good education and giving their children self-confidence and opportunities in life, they will begin to demand this of all schools – raising the standard of education everywhere.
Aside from financial sustainability, how do you plan to grow the initiative or expand your intended impact?
With the program established, we would soon see the results in our students: increased confidence, self-esteem, happiness and a better sense of teamwork. With these results, we would show the community that sports is not just for boys, and have success stories to help us with fundraising to keep up the costs of running the program for many years to come.
This Entry is about (Issues)
Sustainability
How is your initiative financed (or how do you expect your initiative will be financed)?
We are already supporting our sports class in our operational school costs. The training of our graduates would be only occasional expenses which we can fundraise for. Also, we would need to occasionally upgrade equipment and maintain the space devoted to sports.
We have many supporters around the world, and if we needed help funding the program, we would request help from the avid sports fan amongst our supporters. We also have many partnerships with private schools in America, which we would contact for additional support if needed.
Financing source
Annual budget
Our sports class costs INR 48,000 per year.
Annual revenue generated
We do not generate revenue for our sports class.
Number of staff (full-time, part-time, volunteers)
One teacher. Occasional volunteers come and help.
What are the main barriers to financing your initiative, and how do you plan to address these barriers?
The main barrier is finding space in our budget for sports. This is because we have so many pressing needs and because we already provide free books, uniforms, transportation, some healthcare and three meals a day. We also play each student 10 rupees a day. We do not accept any money from the government; instead, we rely on donations and the sale of products made through vocational training to support costs.
What are the major challenges with regards to partnerships?
It's hard to get partnerships for sports because we have so many needs, people prefer to fund the cost of more students.
The Story
What stage is your project?
Ongoing project .
What was the motivation or defining moment that led to create this innovation? Tell us the story.
When we first started the school and asked the students to play, they wouldn’t. Because they didn’t know how to play. It’s heartbreaking to think that these children never had a childhood of laughter, creativity, and fun. With a sports program, we hope we can give back the childhood lost to all our students. When our students grow up and start families of their own, we hope their children won’t need to have their childhood given back to them.
Please tell us about the social innovator behind this initiative
Our social innovator is Sam Singh, a former field hockey player and founder of Pardada Pardadi Educational Society. He grew up in Anupshahar and attended school, where he learned to play field hockey – and excelled. Though just an average student, he found that field hockey taught him how to be a team player, how to focus his goals in life and how to persevere no matter the circumstances.
(Optional) To be eligible for an additional prize, please select age range
27 or older
 | 214 weeks ago denise raymond said: I have seen PPES growing from 10 girls to 1000 girls in a small span of time. It's fast and steady growth is a result of devoted efforts ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 219 weeks ago Simon McKenzie said: As I read through your programme, the thing that strikes me is the sheer impact you must be making. You are working where there was ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 219 weeks ago Eileen Mills said: We all understand how sport is important for the health of ones body and mind along with improving an individual's sense of well-being. ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 220 weeks ago Arya Singh said: I have seen PPES growing from 10 girls to 1000 girls in a small span of time. It's fast and steady growth is a result of devoted efforts ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 220 weeks ago Shaista Chaudhry said: I've visited this school as a volunteer, and I'm glad they are represented on this platform. There is no other school with such a clear ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 220 weeks ago Beena Singh said: Girls education and empowerment is so important especially in this society. Kudos to PPES for embarking on this adventure and working ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 220 weeks ago Ena Murphy said: I have been to Pardada Pardadi many times and I am so glad that there is a place where girls can go and fulfill their dreams. It's not ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 220 weeks ago Andrew Webster said: I visited the Pardad Pardadi School in 2007, have hosted some of their students at my school in New Jersey, and serve on their US ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 220 weeks ago Neena Chaudhry said: What an amazing program! I hope that you are able to secure additional funding so that you can serve as many girls as possible. I am ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
| 220 weeks ago John Malmberg said: I visited this school in the summer of 2006 and found it to be not only well-run but inspiring. This is a terrific organization that has ... about this Competition Entry. - read more > |
