Spotlight: Nayana

Nayana is a 19 year old girl who dropped out of school after 9th grade. She has been accessing the Adolescent Girls centre of Hamara Foundation since the last 3 years and has been a part of Goal since the it’s launch in Mumbai in August 2008.

Her family lives in a hutment on the pavement; her father makes cane furniture and her mother works as a maid in four households. Nayana dropped out of school as she had to take care of her younger siblings and do the household work. She attended a jewellery making class conducted by Hamara Foundation where she excelled in making jewellery and also trained her fellow community girls. However, she did not see this as her career option.

She joined the Goal programme with the thought that she would get an opportunity to play a game and spend more time with her friends who had also joined Goal. Nayana has always been a very progressive and enthusiastic girl. Initially, it was just fun of playing a game. However as the program picked up momentum, Nayana began to excel in the game. She also started displaying qualities of a leader. She would often take the initiative to bring in the other participants who would be late for each session.She would also take responsibility of taking attendance and sometime even start the session on her own.

During one of the sessions Nayana expressed her desire to take up netball as a career. She said that the game had made her feel more confident and energized. She wanted to become a coach and train the other girls from her community. Most of Nayana’s friends are married and there is immense pressure on her parents to find her a groom. When the programme decided to take Nayana as a trainee netball coach, they discussed with her mother her plans for her daughter. She said-“I want my daughter to fulfill her aspirations! I know that she has to get married and run a family…… but I now understand that she can do that along with her job. We will find a groom who will understand her need for a career and who will let her work”

Nayana has joined the Goal team as an ‘Assistant Coach’. She facilitates leadership sessions and teaches netball to the new girls in the programme. She dreams of completing her studies and becoming a good Netball Coach.