Aaina, is a young girl from Bikaner, India. As the oldest of four children, she had to leave school when her father fell ill. While working as a mason to support her family, she dreamed of continuing her studies. Watch video.

In August 2022, we launched a three-year collaboration with Plan India. This grant focuses on education for girls and young women in rural India and aims to impact more than 30,000 lives over the next three years. Plan India has established Accelerated Learning Centers that allow girls and young women who have dropped out of school to complete their education. The project also provides vocational skills to NEET (Not in Education, Employment and Training) girls. It has been launched in four districts in collaboration with the District Administration. Nodal persons have been appointed from district administration to support in convergence with other state programs, review the project at regular intervals and provide technical inputs for effective project implementation. Forty-three centers have been established to support girls in accelerated learning in two districts each in the states of Jharkhand and Rajasthan. A total of 1,220 girls have been enrolled in distance education who will appear for their secondary and/or senior secondary education. Additionally, 1,300 women are being imparted skills on mushroom cultivation, goat poultry rearing.

The wider aims are to reduce the vulnerabilities of girls forced into child marriage and/or trafficked for domestic labor. Further goals are to strengthen the school system and build community awareness of the importance of girls’ education. Learn more about this collaboration here.

The societal need in all our strategic pillars has become greater and more urgent