This is the third year that I have been writing an end of year reflection note for Kuviraa and as I read the notes from 2022 and 2023, I’m proud of the progress we have made but also know that we are only just getting started.
This past year we directly impacted 200 girls and women and although we conducted some offline workshops, our focus was predominantly on our online programs, where we hosted three different cohorts of the Ambassador Program, reaching adolescent girls and women from corners of India including Tezpur in Assam, to Bhatinda in Punjab. Our growth and programming this year has been extremely intentional, working towards highlighting different elements of our democracy and tying them to issues of social justice and inequalities faced by girls and women in different parts of India.
Running multiple cohorts has taught us that it is more powerful to invite regional or grassroots leaders to speak with our participants as they are more relatable to our community than national level public leaders from larger organisations. In 2024, our online presence was also streamlined, focussing on educational content for women, girls and new voters, reaching 3500 individuals.
2024 being a year of elections in India and globally helped reinforce the importance of our work. Many first-time voters were overwhelmed with the information or the processes to follow. We interacted with first-time voters and media houses to demystify voting and the electoral processes for them. We ran a special townhall for our alumni after the election results with journalist Shreya Raman to talk about what the role of women in the election process was and what the results could potentially mean for women.
2024 was also the first full year that Kuviraa ran as a registered entity (ABBAKKA Foundation under Section 8 of the Companies Act 2013), we were eligible to receive donations from April 2024 and raised some initial funding to compensate people for their time at Kuviraa. This was a huge win for us as we had been solely relying on volunteers and pro-bono consultants before last year.
In 2025, my hope is to partner with our inspiring alumni to work in their communities, taking Kuviraa on the ground, while contextualising it to local issues on gender and governance, finding and adapting solutions that make the most sense to the community. As we grow our in-person programming in 2025, we will continue to do our flagship online Ambassador Program which introduces us to more young people across the country. This year, we also hope to build our first youth advisory board who will guide us and help us center our programming around our community.
Lastly, 2024 was a big year for me - I moved to the US for personal reasons, constantly wrestling with what I need to do for myself vs. what I need to do for Kuviraa. I was told that it would be hard (almost impossible?) to continue working on Kuviraa but I am super grateful for the support of my mentors and alumni community who encouraged me through this year and believed in what I and Kuviraa stand for. Our growth may not be rapid or conventional but it has definitely been very intentional and impactful. Wishing a great 2025 and I cannot wait to see all the amazing things we do with our alumni this year!
If you would like to be a part of this journey with us please reach out to me at shevika@kuviraa.org
With gratitude,
Shevika
Founder & Director
Kuviraa
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