 Well, welcome back everyone. I hope you found your way satisfactorily to the sandwiches. Now, we move on to this afternoon, and I'm very pleased to welcome Jacqueline Descholais, who actually has really, I'm very pleased she's here. She's actually due to be in Delhi from Switzerland and has changed her flights around to be with us today, which is jolly nice of her. She founded the Verme project for reproductive health and education for women in Rajasthan in India. And the aim of this is to create self-sufficiency for village women and girls and to empower them to take control of their own lives. And over the past 40 years, she's been active in these areas, women's social justice and education and public housing, including working in that rather grim area, London's East End. She's also been involved with similar rights of women and their education in Africa and with refugees in New York. Jacqueline, thank you very much for coming along today to talk to us. Thank you. It's a great pleasure for me, an honour too, to talk about an issue that I care so much about, which is young women in the developing world, and who should have the same opportunities as you all have in our societies. I based it a lot on what Eleanor Roosevelt said very long time ago, that there was no social transformation in a country without the participation of women. But how can they participate in the life of their communities, of their countries, if they remain illiterate? A village woman in India once said to me, how can I take a bus if I can't read the sign of where it's going? In a way, so I would like to tell you the story of a small project in Rajasthan, in a very deprived part of the desert, about how change can take place, and how you can empower women, young women, to take control of their lives. It's a very used word, empowerment. And I only define it in one way. It is the capacity to make your own life choices, whether to work, whether when to get married, whether to have children, what to do. And this is denied in many ways to a lot of young women. So I will tell you the story of Vienna through photographs and some text. The Vienna project was started in 1993. It was originally a health, more health oriented about women's health and adolescent girls. And then it evolved into education because, as I said, you change nothing if you don't educate women. So this is just global indicators for you. According to UNESCO, there's still 119 million women are out of school. And the education goes beyond schooling. The other important thing is that school is a safe place for girls. Often, they're not that safe in their environment, but in school they're safe. So it allows them to make decisions about their own lives. So this is the Vienna project, girls go to school. They live in an institute, but they go to school. They cannot, in this institute, they're taken care of their health, they're safe. They do lots of activities, which you will see, but they attend good schools. So, why India? Because the gender gap in India, out of 156 countries, its ranks very low in gender equality, and particularly in women's participation. So look at the last figure. If you raised women's participation at the same level as men, you would boost India's GDP by 27%. So it's a waste of women's lives, of the energy they can contribute to their country. So, Rajasthan is one of the worst performing states in India. They backward, the overall literacy is only 69%, but 57% of women are literate. It has a population of 78 million, but there were 2 million, 4.7 million missing women. I don't know if you know that, but because of gender selection in India, there are 50 million women missing, which is a violence against women that is not talked about. So the prevalence of child marriage is very high, particularly in the rural areas where the only operates, where it's practically 90%. All girls are married or are promised in marriage. So this is a story of child rights that those two girls were child rights. They come from a village of Dalit, which we have a strong presence in. And Dogo is the subject of a movie made by some people in Singapore has been showed quite widely. Those two, this village decided about three years ago that they would never marry another girl in their village. So this tradition of child marriage, we can't change it as foreigners. It has to come from the community, and the community has to make those decisions. A village like that makes a decision. It was a big village event to tell us that it, that's why you make change. We can't impose it, it has to come from them. So this the justification, what happens to girls if they don't go to school, you can read of the less decision making early marriage early child bearing of course, and it's got a negative impact on her health she has too many children too close to each other. And the other thing is that the job opportunity she's not educated there are no job opportunities. So it also we know has a negative impact on a child's health on their children. Everything, you know, that goes into each other in the sense of a not educated woman will not have as much chance, no chance in life. There's, as I said, no to social transformation without the education of women. There's a holistic approach to girls education. So what does that consist of the safe accommodation access to good education facilities and comprehensive health care. Most girls when they arrive age 12 is you know secondary schooling in India is six to 12 age 12 to 18 are anemic on the wait, and this is the first thing we do is to get their health right. And they have very good food food is very important. They have a lot of extracurricular activities. Importantly we'll talk about the computer literacy, which is something innovative that we started in 2017 that allowed the whole coronavirus time for the girls not to drop out of school because they have tablets. Distance learning not one girl dropped out of school. They have conversational English, and they have career counseling and guidance. So this is the girls 110 girls in this institute, as I said, aged from 12 to 18, and all of them go on to college education. Also, we do a variety of activities as you would all have they have, they have excursions they visit theme parks. This was a particular one they loved which was a theme park. Also, they do sports. Self defense is something that was introduced. And they are incredibly good at it, they can break bricks with their arms. I defy anybody to attack one of those girls. They are tough, and they love it. So this is the theory of change, how you can make the interventions so you can enroll this advantage girls and provide a safe supportive I'd like to say that it's mixed cast. We never look at costs we never discuss cost, which in India is, as you know, quite a subject. My father came to me about high cost girls, Dalits, all kinds of costs the father came to me last time I was there, and said his daughter high cost girl had become friends with a Dalit. And he wanted us to break that friendship. And I said, I'm sorry, we believe in friendship, and we never interfere. And if you're not happy with your daughter being there, you can always take her out. Two weeks later he came back with two chocolates. And he said I bought two chocolates and I said well we have 110 girls and he said, I'm a poor man, I brought chocolates for my daughter and her friend. He had changed his mind. It was very touching that this can happen, because the cost environment is a complicated one. So, the other thing is, we provide opportunities for self expression so a lot of it is, they do theater, they write plays, they act them out. They Indian teaching is very wrote. It's a tough curriculum, very tough, and it's very much about wrote learning and creativity is not very strong in that program. So we try to bring creativity through plays through self expression. There are girls who arrive age 12 or currently like will not lift their heads up within a year they're able to talk in front of 100 people. So, self confidence is very much part of this program. So, the education is very good they go to very good private schools. They have tutors. In the computer lab in 2017, we got a grant for computer lab, and the girls are computer literate which is rare because they don't even teach it in some of the schools. And this has been, and we also have ICT technology, which meant that when they couldn't go to school with within a big screen, we could have in tutoring in the institute from teachers outside. And these are all technology is, as you know, incredibly important, and technology has helped us keep all these girls in education, but also, they're ahead of the game because they're computer literate. So, again, I said the outcomes is seven years of secondary education, their health prospects, also career guidance for the future. And the impact is this successful transition to adulthood and giving them some choices in life of careers. Now I don't know if you know that but in India 50% of government jobs go to low cost but because they're not educated enough. There's those jobs are rarely filled, which are teachers nurses or government employees. So increasingly the girls are going into those careers. Now the computer lessons are distance learning, as you can see, they have their lots of computers, and the fact that their computer literate is a huge advantage for them. So, what are the academic achievement, as I told you, 100% are retained in the program, they moved to the next class, and they own that secondary education certificate some of them with very high marks. The health outcomes is there are 100% immunized. They achieve normal body and BI for their ages, and 90% are not anemic because anemia remains a big problem in India. So, as I mentioned, they pursue higher education, nurses, doctors, police officers, government, employment, teachers, and other professions. Now, I just want to tell you quickly the story you just a short video. The show bar is was a child bride, she came from a pretty terrible village on the highway, which was a liquor trafficking, where all the girls were child brides and she, I'll let her tell her story, she tells it. So, how do I do that? Namaste. Hello everybody, myself Shobha from Village Rajwa. I don't know how to speak good English, but I will try to say about myself. When I was nine year old, my parents was fixed my marriage with a boy of my near village in 1998. Since 2007 to 2012, I was a student of the Vinny Institute. In these five years, I have completed my high schooling and graduation. In 2012, my parents sent me to my husband's house. When I show him first time, I was shocked because he was drunk and very opposing me. I got depressed and crying. For five days, his behavior was same as first day. I tried to convince my parents and my in-laws, but no one was there to hear me about this mis-happening. After this all, I went to near police station and reported all this story. Police called my parents, but they forced me to remain there, but I don't want to go there again. I went high court and case my file. My case completed in one year and after that, finally I got divorced. In between, that time I completed my bachelor's of education degree. It's calling beard. It's a teacher training. Now I am doing master of arts final year in history with doing part-time work also. Now I am feeling happy and free from all foundation of child marriage. I really thanks to Winnie Project who give me an opportunity to grow up myself as a single woman. If I were in the husband's house, it's sure that I had killed myself due to this situation. Once again, thanks to Winnie and all who supported me. Thank you. Now I'll tell you the story. She was, her story was written up in National Geographic by a journalist from the, and it was, as you know, National Geographic is read in so many languages. And Cynthia Gurney paid for her college education. It was after her college education that she had this terrible experience in her words to me, she said I was treated like an animal, but she got out of it. And she went to, we helped her go to Jaipur, her life was in danger in Jaipur. And she went to Jaipur, she got herself, you know, paid a worked and did some jobs and eventually she joined the police force. And she joined her today. She's now a high ranking officer in the police. And she's on her way to a great career she has two women working for her. So, in your needs more young women like her. I mean she's a champion, really, because what she went through is in you we cannot imagine how difficult her life was, but now she's, she's amazing, she's wonderful. We'll see her next week. So, those are the objectives of the project. And we've talked about it to complete so could be education to improve that knowledge and decision making ability to expose into a world outside of the village, and to develop a good agency, right self confidence self expression, leadership and friends. So, a few years ago, we asked them, we did a literary competition, and it the team was friendship, which was actually set by my granddaughter who was a volunteer at the program. And they wrote the most wonderful play, which my grandchildren action about the importance of friendship friendship is difficult in villages. So the other thing is they have health checkups we have a doctor that weighed regularly measured that whole health is taken into account that's important that diet is important as well. They do homework their homework we have tutors to help them when they need it. And there I am about the friendship part, because in villages is hard for them, they're always told to work to fetch water to do things. I remember once in a village, I said to a young man to a young boy and he said, Why do you make girls take go and fetch water, why aren't you fetching water and he said, Oh, that's a girl's job, that's not man's job. And then you don't take a bath, then you don't drink water, you know, this is kind of how changing mindsets. It's so it's, it's really. So we're talking about girl power. These girls really love it. They love, they celebrate it. They are. They love walking around the Institute. And this is a traditional welcome, if you come and visit. That's what takes place. And they love the rangoli, you know, they paint their hands they love doing that. And that's the Viennese family. That's with all the staff they have made friends, they have nurses. They have tutors and tutors so in all this is it's a family. It's really how it functions as a family. So thank you from the Viennese girls. They would love to hear from you. So, what does it mean, it means the hero woman via means hero in Hindi, and me means woman. So, it's the program it's 110 girls we refused 450 last year. It's not a drop in the ocean. But as we say the ocean is made of drops. So, we need all of you. So, I just want to finish by saying that the audience today is a great friend of mine, a young friend of mine called see that shoot, who was my second ever volunteer at the army. She was there in 2004, and she taught in the villages. So her experience is an invaluable one. So I'm going to ask her to come and say a few words. She has started a junior ambassador club in London. And she's as I mentioned a member of our foundation. So, sit up. Will you come and say a few words. And then talk to lunch with us. And I was going to go and explore. It's like, I went to the bank for that. And I went, I went there before they set up the schools. I was in the villages. And we did a shock to my sister. I didn't have any planning for a volunteer or a volunteer. Are you planning a volunteer? It was ironing. I was also But it also, it changed my group. I came back to London after that. And I set up my own charity. And then it's been working and helping me understand it's because it's a very small project that we see around you to that scale. But actually, over time, I see that the change that they've done is tiny little in one tiny place has actually had this incredible effect. From where they're at today. It's an incredible change. So, meanwhile, yeah, we started a young ambassador's club. And it's really, really great for young women, especially to invite the rights of their counterparts in the world, where they do want to be a doctor. I'm really happy. Thank you for that. If you send it to me, I might send that on. And now please open it to question that anybody has a question. Please. Ask me. Good. Thank you. Please. How does it help for organizational institutions like the many integrated stuff with the in these business montage areas? What about learning that there might be some initial resistance to the community itself? All right. To several answers. One is there is a minimum income to for girls to be able to attend. I either have to be from rural, rural areas that cannot come from a city where there's the desert is a very poor region with tiny little hamlets and so on. So it's basically practically under $2 a day of families of hardship. Because the venue project operated for 10 years in villages, we have strong, they have strong contacts in the villages. We, they had what we call promoters women who were our representatives who organized originally the activities of the project which were health education, because then the institute only started in 2005 as a residential. And so the key to the project is the confidence of the over years of the villages towards the project, but also, and the criteria for coming to the project is that the girls do have to have the capacity to follow a good path, if they don't work you to them that they we do special cases for girls who are vulnerable who've lost their mothers or you know there's a lot of hardship in those villages. But the criteria is really rural based and they lowered the lowest income among the poorest. Most of their families are illiterate. They're probably the first person to be literate. And it's how you get out of poverty how you, you, you got you managed to understand the value of education now there's an interesting change which is recent. What I would say in the last year or so is that before it was mothers wanted their daughters educated. Now it's fathers, before the father stayed outside they didn't even bother to come and talk to us. Now it's fathers were coming a new generation younger generation of men in India who want their daughters educated. And this is a quantum leap. This is an incredible development. So, this is how you affect change in time you don't impose it, you listen, you go to the villages you listen, and you, you see what they, how they are changing their mindset. So, I hope I answered your question. Any other. Any other questions. And I think this makes us realize just how lucky, how lucky we are here, whatever we may decide we want to learn about. It also, to me, really makes the point that if you want to have change, it's bottom up, not top down. And if any of you are thinking of doing anything in your gap year. This is the sort of thing to do of my various and many children, three of them couldn't escape and to taught in India and one in Africa. They weren't like me saying it. It made a difference. I could see that. Thank you very much. Thank you for giving me this chance to talk about this project which is, you know, so close to my heart and for these young, wonderful young women. I'd like to say that I've also funded project in Africa, also for education, and it is the only way to change the world. And these girls should have the same rights as you have so it needs all your help, it needs all your input to ensure that your sisters, it's a sisterhood, your sisters in the developing world have what you have. So thank you for listening.