Footprints Project

A total of
3889
Travelers
donated
$25005.09
(100% funded)
to help reduce
Poverty
impacting
56000
people
in
India

Project Background

Nearly half (46%) of girls in Bihar marry before the legal age of 18.
Less than 20% of 16-17-year-old girls attend school.
Bihar is considered one of the main Indian states supplying child labour to other states, with high rates of trafficking of young girls.
The Hunger Project works directly with adolescent girls over a three-year period (2024- 2026), empowering them at a critical time in their development. We help ensure an enabling environment where they can exercise their voice and agency in making informed decisions about their lives.
Your partnership means that, with 1,400 girls participating in the program, we can impact over 56,000 people in two generations! Bihar’s average household size is 5.4 members, so within just two generations, transforming the life of one adolescent girl can mean reaching more than 40 people.

Key Activities

Sukanya (Girls) Clubs

Bi-monthly meetings of a local ‘club’ where girls come together to share their experiences, develop new ideas, and learn life skills.
Block Level Club Meetings bring together adolescent girls and elected women, as well as local administration, policy makers, and media, to create a platform for girls to advocate for their rights, raise concerns, and petition government.

Girls Leadership Workshops

Girls Leadership Workshops (GLWs) build the leadership capacity of girls, shifting their mindsets to see themselves as changemakers for themselves and communities. Follow-up workshops connected girls to their local councils, allowing them to identify issues and advocate for change.

Mobilising Elected Women Representatives

Through participation across the program, elected women are trained on the rights of adolescent girls, the importance of education, and the causes and impacts of child marriage and gender-based violence and are mobilised to advocate for systemic change.

What costs are covered?

Program Staff Cost: Renumeration for the ground staff implementing the project.
Program Support Cost: Administrative costs such as stationaries, communication, rent, etc.
Core Program Cost: General expenses needed to organise and conduct workshops and trainings.
THP Australia Cost: Grant management costs for THP Australia, who acts as the grant manager for this project.
THP Global Costs: Cost for the overall governance of the project as well as support services such as Monitoring & Evaluation and Financial platforms.

Partner and community involvement

The Hunger Project’s ‘Adolescent Girls Program’ is run by The Hunger Project India team. The Hunger Project uses timely and accurate data for interventions and works to make that data accessible and transparent to community members. This makes the data actionable and usable for communities and state authorities.

How does this project fit into a larger strategy?

The Hunger Project’s innovative and holistic approach to ending world hunger calls for the empowerment of rural communities in Africa, India, Bangladesh, and Latin America to take charge of their own development, transform entrenched harmful traditional practices and beliefs, and be active citizens who know their rights and hold the government to account. All of our programs – while adapted to meet local opportunities and challenges – share three essential things that will end hunger for good:

1) Start by empowering women as key change agents. The vast majority of people living in hunger and poverty are women. Women bear almost all responsibility for meeting the basic needs of the family, yet are systematically denied the resources, information, and freedom of action they need to fulfil this responsibility. Studies show that when women are supported and empowered, all of society benefits. Their families are healthier, more children go to school, agricultural productivity improves, and incomes increase. That’s why we focus on building the capacity of women.

2) Mobilise entire communities into self-reliant action. Our aim is to overcome the deep resignation within people living in hunger, and awaken them to the possibility of a different future, one free from hunger. We build people’s knowledge, skills, and leadership, so they can take action to improve their own communities.

3) Foster effective partnerships to engage local government. We work in partnership with local government bodies to ensure that they are effective, include women in leadership positions, are directly accountable to local people, and provide access to resources and information. We also educate and encourage communities to demand what they’re entitled to from their governments, including services, resources, and financial schemes and benefits.