20 year old Anuradha lives in Mamai Mau village in Gosainganj block of Lucknow was a reserved girl and rarely interacted with people. But today she is an active ‘Team Change leader’ who now not only holds meetings with adolescents of her village for recapitulation of Taaron Ki Tolli sessions and but also often upholds the discussions on MHM. 

In her own words, “Earlier I used to feel nervous if I was asked to talk publicly or express my feelings to others. But the ‘De Tali’ programme by Breakthrough, helped me develop a lot of confidence. So much so that now I do not hesitate to share my feelings and views before anyone. My parents are also happy to see this positive change in my personality.’’

Anuradha has been part of two rounds of peer educator training and her views on gender issues have transformed. She says, “Earlier I thought that boys are superior to girls in many aspects and there is a lot of difference between boys and girls. But now I realize that girls and boys are equal and girls are capable of taking up all tasks which boys can do. I used to think that only boys could take important decisions about their lives and future. Now I believe girls also have a right to make life choices.

Anuradha is the winner of Breakthrough’s ‘Dakhal Do’ campaign as she successfully intervened to get justice for her friend who was suffering from domestic violence at the hands of her husband. 

Presently Anuradha is making immense difference in her village and even gaining the status of an opinion leader. Now the newly elected Pradhan also soughts her opinion on any special task which could help better the village community. Since 6 precious lives were lost to Covid-19 in her village, she has made sure that the village gets sanitized properly and has been instrumental in distribution of ‘face masks’. The Pradhan respected and followed her suggestions and a planning meeting was called with important stakeholders, frontline workers and Rozgar Sevika as well as the cleanliness staff. The plan of sanitization was so thorough that all the smaller pockets of the village were also covered. Thereafter, the entire village was sanitized and the people in need were given medicines and COVID kits too.