Parwaz Adolescent Centre for Education

PACE is an acronym for Parwaz Adolescent Centre for Education. Launched in the year 2018, it is an education initiative designed especially for the school dropout girls and never-enrolled women who never had a chance to get an education. The project provides an 18-month formal education course for the age group of 15-25 years through NIOS (National Institute of Open Schooling) that aims to educate females in various communities so as to promote women’s education and increase overall female literacy with an understanding on gender and gender-based discrimination.

Since the first successful pilot phase in two Centres in New Delhi (Janta Mazdoor Colony and Dakshinpuri) in 2016-17 with nearly 60 girls, PACE centres have grown in both scale and outreach. Notably, the Centres continued to function with physical distancing measures in place during the COVID-19 pandemic as well. Blended learning strategies were used to ensure that learning losses are minimised. As of 2023-24, 530 girls have enrolled at our Centres and successfully completed their courses. Moreover, 92 of them are actively engaged alumni who have assumed active leadership roles in the community including outreach and enrolment of new batches every year.

In 2023-24, two PACE centres were operational in New Seemapuri and Janta Mazdoor Colony of New Delhi. Drawing upon insights from Action India’s presence in the communities over decades, the PACE team’s field surveys, as well as demands from young girls and alumni from the communities themselves, we are set to launch two additional PACE centres in Jahangirpuri and Sunder Nagri. Moreover, we also envision a Tarang Centre in New Seemapuri, that will be meant for adolescent girls as well as boys in the age group of 9-14 years. In addition to students who have never been enrolled and those who have dropped out, this Centre will also reach out to those who are in school and need to improve their learning levels. Outreach to the presently enrolled students will be aimed at preventing future dropouts as well as improving their learning levels.

Some of the core objectives of the program are as follows:

To create and sustain learning opportunities for dropout girls from urban poor and marginalised communities in the age group of 15 to 25 years.
To promote sex education and contribute towards improved access to sexual and reproductive healthcare services.
To collectivise and build leadership among adolescent girls.
To address the issue of malnutrition and focus on nutritional needs of adolescent girls.
To raise awareness about mental health, reduce stigma and promote emotional well-being.

Tags Charity poor love

Our Achivements:-

Training and development programs are helping the girls and community at large, to apply the acquired knowledge in their everyday lives. We have persistently tried to maintain an ongoing connection, post the successful completion of the training.
The girls have learnt the safe and correct disposal of sanitary napkins in an environment friendly manner. The impact of these trainings on schools and the community is huge.
The participants take their learning and inform and discuss with their peers. Peer groups have developed as a result, where a lot of the information from the training programmes are discussed and shared.
We have been able to ensure regular availability of sanitary napkins to the adolescents in schools and the community. The ease of access to sanitary pads has increased manifold since they are now able to avail pads at their doorstep.