Training with Voice 4 Girls in Hyderabad

Greetings from Hyderabad!

It’s day six and we are settling into a routine and are (almost) entirely recovered from jetlag. Since we last updated you, we have spent three days training with Voice 4 Girls, which is the organization we are volunteering with during our time here.

Along with training we have continued to start our days with yoga, end them with reflective journaling, and drinking plenty of chai in between.

During our training we learned about the organization and their array of programing, the specific content we will be teaching, and have practiced through microteaching.

Voice 4 Girls mission and vision is …

“To enable marginalized adolescent girls in India to take charge of their futures by imparting critical knowledge, spoken English, and life skills through activity-based camps. Critical knowledge includes: basic health, safety, rights, self-awareness, and future planning. Life skills include: interpersonal skills, leadership, problem solving, independent and critical thinking ability.”

And that …

“All girls will take charge of their futures, and work towards breaking harmful cycles of economic, social, and gender inequality in their communities.”

(To learn more about Voice 4 Girls, visit their website: voice4girls.org)

Our group of students will be acting as short term camp counselors in the Her Voice camp – just one of the levels of camps that local students go through with Voice 4 Girls’ programming. Her Voice focuses on spoken English through activities surrounding the subjects of school, family, finances, conflict resolution, and health. 

During microteaching, we’ve practiced facilitating the lessons and activities that we’ll be doing at the camp. Some of the activities include “Happy Me, Happy You”, “My Health and I”, “My Future and I”, and “My College and I”.

Through reflection journaling and group discussion, we’ve covered huge topics such as understanding the historical and social context of being Americans abroad in general and in India, and specifically what our service here means. This is a group has incredible critical thinking skills and it is a joy to hear them dig deeper into the experience.

This weekend we’ll be relaxing in Hyderabad and on campus before our week of service learning begins!