Maitrayana’s Young People’s Initiative (YPI) Pragati is a play-based programme focused on adolescent girls (10- 17 years) from marginalised communities who face gender discriminations. Girls encounter various challenges such as difficult economic circumstances, conservative upbringing, and challenges within the education systems. –

• Within Maitrayana’s YPI Pragati, girls participate in 54 netball and life skills sessions with a curriculum focused on building girls’ knowledge, skills, attitudes, behaviour and confidence regarding their sexual reproductive health, gender, rights and future.
• Sessions cover: life skills (communication, dealing with peer pressure, decision making), their identity (understanding gender, their qualities), health (menstruation, sport, body image), gender based violence (what GBV is, how to seek and where to find support), their rights (education, employment, SRHR) and working towards their future goals.
• The sessions take place twice per week for 45 minutes in schools and communities, in general following the academic/financial year with groups of approximately 25 girls.
• Sessions are led by female coaches, usually former participants, with a thorough understanding of the barriers that girls are facing and expertise in guiding them through their empowerment process.
• The sessions provide opportunities for female leadership development. From within the participants’ group, leaders are elected who are the intermediaries between the girls and the YPI coaches in the school/community. Community Sports Coaches – usually former participants/peer leaders intern during the session to support the coaches and build their own leadership/employability skills.
• At the end of the programme, girls will play in a netball tournament. Every programme site is represented by a team that plays at a Maitrayana’s closing netball tournament held at a central location.
• Maitrayana ensures the implementation of quality sessions that are safe, fun, inclusive, well prepared, conducted, monitored and reviewed and where girls learning through playing.
• Meetings/trainings with parents are held to build an ecosystem that facilities
• Thorough Monitoring and Evaluation has proven the impact of the programme on girls lives (see picture)

• Play-based methodology which makes the sessions fun and gives girls the opportunity for experiential learning and apply these learnings immediately.
• Sessions led by female coaches in the age range (18 – 30 years) which provides girls with a safe environment to open up, share their experiences/thoughts and ask questions.
• Since many of the girls in the target group have not been encouraged to play and most of the schools do not provide physical education classes, participating in YPI Pragati is often the first time that they participate in sport. Every girl participates in a netball tournament in which they play official matches.