Asha Kumari, 16 years

Daughter of a daily wage labourer, Asha worked as a farm labourer in their village to support her six-member family. Her parents were alcoholics; hence none of the siblings could study beyond Class 10th. 

Asha came into contact with Aahan girls, who were distributing sanitary napkins and sanitisers as part of Aahan’s Covid Relief Program. She was keen on joining in the activities conducted at the Aahan Centre. The team worked on convincing her parents to let her participate.

Her transformation began as she went through various trauma healing, coaching and peer group sharing sessions. She bloomed from a silent participator to a full-fledged Aahan member. Today Asha has cleared her Class 10th exam. She applied for becoming Urjaa Fellow, and after a series of interviews, was selected to be a trainee Urjaa Fellow. Despite opposition from her parents, Asha is continuing with her education through Open school facilitated by Aahan. She has also fought against marriage proposals.