Featured Programs

PSE is a school-based curriculum that teaches children protective behavior and empowers them to play an active role in their protection. It is a program to prevent child sexual abuse. Since 2013, Faith Foundation has been implementing this program. The organization in collaboration with the State Education Department began piloting this program in government schools in 2018. Sessions are conducted with children 6 – 18 years of age using language and information appropriate to their age group. The children learn about child rights, gender, emotions, safe and unsafe situations, consent, personal boundaries, healthy and unhealthy relationships, grooming, online safety, and understanding their bodies. These sessions also integrate life skills such as self-awareness, decision-making, communication, and problem-solving. There are also sensitization sessions conducted with teachers, management, and parents in schools. Through partnerships with other organizations, the organization also reaches out to children in villages and child care institutions.

The Faith Foundation works with other government and non-government organizations to raise awareness and sensitize the public about child sexual abuse and to provide PSE sessions to children they work with. Additionally, the organization organizes capacity building trainings and workshops under the Integrated Child Protection Scheme in collaboration with the State Child Protection Society of Meghalaya to train ICPS stakeholders in Meghalaya about children’s rights and how to prevent and respond to Child Sexual Abuse. Faith Foundation engages with educational institutions such as Martin Luther Christian University to build the capacity of their students and teachers in child rights issues. The organization closely collaborates with the Meghalaya State Commission for the Protection of Children’s Rights. Furthermore, the organization works with communities to raise awareness and address issues related to children. In order to safeguard the safety of children, the team facilitates community ownership processes in communities where it operates.

Our team is comprised of trained counsellors that deal with disclosures of children who have experienced sexual abuse. Through classroom exercises during Personal Safety Sessions, the team also reaches out to children who are in potentially unsafe situations. Child Welfare Committee has appointed counsellors as Support Persons to assist children who have suffered sexual abuse. In addition, they provide counseling to children and their families, conduct home visits, and accompany children to court.

A unique program organized by the organization to encourage children to tell stories. We conduct workshops with children to prepare comics, to visualize the story and to place text and images. As a team, we strive to create a safe space for children to share their stories with less focus on the drawing and, more importantly, on the story. Typically, this type of activity is conducted with adolescents, who are encouraged to share their stories through these comics with their peers and communities.

Faith Foundation initiated Project Raise in collaboration with Equal Community Foundation, a Pune-based organization in the year 2019 as a pilot project with the aim of providing boys with the opportunity to learn and practice gender equitable behaviour at home, among their peers, and in their communities in order to prevent violence against children and women.

This project was initiated in 3 villages in Ri Bhoi District with the assistance of a seed grant from the AYNI – Fund of the International Indigenous Women’s Forum. Our short-term project aimed to encourage the exchange of learning and knowledge among women farmers and adolescent girls. It is indigenous women that preserve traditional knowledge and, through this project, the team has worked with women farmers in introducing agro-ecological methods and traditional food systems for food security.  We included adolescent girls as part of this project, as we believed it is crucial for our indigenous children to learn about traditional foods and resources, as this is their right as indigenous children.

This is a project that has been initiated by the Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples under its thriving women’s initiative to address the sexual health and reproductive rights of adolescents. All members of the community will play a part in fostering community ownership. A facilitation team will be formed in each community through the SALT – CLCP process in order to engage the community as a whole in addressing this issue through their local action plans as well as key stakeholders, including the community health worker.

Based on the findings from the baseline study, this project attempts to address the underlying causes of teenage pregnancy. In addition to addressing the culture of shame and silence within the community surrounding sexuality and sexual reproduction, the project will also address the need for parental guidance and support for growing adolescents, as well as the barriers girls and pregnant teens face in accessing sexual reproductive health knowledge, information, and services. Using comprehensive Sexuality Education, the program aims to improve the sexual and reproductive health of adolescent girls so they can make healthy and informed choices to prevent early pregnancies and marriages.

The Faith Foundation is a member of the Go Girl partners, a five country initiative of the Constellation. Kenya, Cameroon, Ghana, Indonesia, and India are all addressing issues relating to teenage pregnancy. Through The Go Girl, partners can share their work and field experiences from their own communities to learn from one another.