NEW DELHI: People Powered Digital Narratives (PPDN) is working with young girls from marginalized backgrounds, training them on storytelling through mobile videos.
It aims to train and encourage more young girls to tell their inspirational stories of beating the odds to access education, through short mobile videos. On the International Day of the Girl Child, these girls have created a video inspiring other girls to tell their stories through short videos.
In the video, Guddi Gupta, Aahana Patel, Nagma Salim Siddiqui, Shraddha Gadge, and Khushi Jaiswal – all aged between 13 and 18 years and all hailing from Navi Mumbai – talk about the challenges that they surmounted to access education during the Covid-induced restrictions, from erratic internet to living in small homes in cramped neighborhoods and having to help out with increased household chores. The girls explain their effort to break the digital divide and embrace online learning.
“Over the past year and a half, we have faced great difficulty in accessing education. Everything moved to the online medium suddenly, which meant we had to rapidly embrace online learning, apart from fighting other challenges,” said Guddi Gupta, a seventeen-year-old class 12 student.
Shraddha Gadge, a 13-year old class 9 student said, “We started #ConfessionBox videos treating the camera as our friend that we could talk to. This enables us to explain our challenges and how we beat them. The aim is to inspire and encourage more girls like us to come forward and start a conversation on the need to ease access to learning.”
The girls then encourage others to share their stories through #ConfessionBox videos which will be featured on the #HerAkshar’s Facebook page.
People Powered Digital Narratives (PPDN)
PPDN is a collaborative effort to help adolescents learn about issues including Girl Capital (Education and Employability), Air Quality, Adolescent Reproductive and Sexual Health and Rights and express their opinion using innovative storytelling and social media. PPDN is creating online spaces that will help adolescents develop into active citizens. The aim is to equip them to talk about and influence the issues that affect them, making a positive difference in and beyond their communities.
It is currently active in the peri-urban and rural areas of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, and Jharkhand. Her Akshar, Hawa Ke Rakshak and Ankaheen Baatein are online communities under this initiative, which is supported by Praxis UK and its partners.
