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By building a network of trained and active adolescent school going girls, women living in those communities can be accessed and educated to promote behavior change for healthier lifestyles. Moreover, such networks can be further utilized to influence their communities to promote social causes.
This project aims to enhance leadership skills of adolescent girls by providing trainings to boost their confidence, improve educational performance and ameliorate their communication competency. By harnessing the potential of students as “Actors of Social Change”, this indigenous community outreach campaign is designed to increase uptake of screening and treatment services for infectious diseases such as TB, as well as primary care.
Divided into five phases, “Kiran Sitara” initiative trains teachers as mentors, who further mobilize adolescent school girls from schools across Pakistan. Each girl is tasked to conduct verbal screenings in at least 20 households in her neighborhood, and provide referral slips to IRD’s clinical programs at public and private institutions for free care and treatment.
After the successful intervention in Karachi, the program has expanded to other Districts of Sindh; Hyderabad and Sukkur. The program has also expanded to Peshawar through partnership with KP Education Department and Private Schools in Punjab.
Since its inception, the Kiran Sitara initiative has supported vulnerable communities across Pakistan through multiple iterations, improving the lives of thousands of people.