Program for Adolescent Girl Child :

The Planning, Designing and Implementation of the program for Adolescent Girl Child Development were taken up by AFARM through its member agencies in the year 1995. It was considered as an investment for future development of Women.   

This particular program was a “landmark” in the history of Women Development. This program also gave a concert shape and direction to the NGOs who were struggling to bring a sense of gender equality and eliminate gender-preconceived notion from the minds of Women folk. This particular program enrolled girls between the ages of 12 to 18 from rural areas. Till date around 10,000 are trained under this program, from all parts of Maharashtra. The program aimed at enhancing their knowledge, skills and mindset. 

The promotion of the program is presently done by all donor agencies in the state of Maharashtra including the State government. Four exclusive books on “Adolescent Girl Child development program” are published by AFARM, which are used by State government and number of donor agencies, who are implementing the program.

Program for “Political Literacy” for Women in Local Self-Government :

In order to assemble the functional, Domestic and social problems of Women in three-tier system, state level workshops was organized. The state level workshop was followed by Regional workshops were women in Self Government came forward with their issue of unease. On which capacity building programs were designed, Planned and implemented. Unique program for the women from Tribal communities were implemented as Pilot Project in the Yavatmal district.

AFARM took up the program of capacity building of elected women members in the eight districts of Marathwada region. The program fulfilled the aspiration of bring women folk into mainstream of development.

AFARM also conducted training program of Gram Panchayat members from the Blocks of Haveli, Shirur & Khed in the Pune District. The said training’s are organized as a part of State Action Plan. Altogether 1658 Gram Panchayat members are trained under this program.

Program of Trauma Counseling :

Trauma counseling program, for the traumatized people in the Latur & Osmanabad (1994-1996) who were earthquake struck in the year 1993. The program was designed especially for the Women folk who were suffering from mild mental disorders and required counseling and medicines at regular intervals.

The program was tri-party program in which Maharashtra Institute of Metal Health -Pune, AFARM and district civil hospitals were partners. Apart from the Trauma Counseling program; numbers of programs for the betterment of the women folk in disaster strike areas were done. Like income generation programs for the women, formation of SHG, Agro-based training’s for women from agro-based families etc.

Program of “Family Counseling” & "Capacity Building of Mahila Suraksha Samities" :

These were the years when issues of “violence on the women” in society and on the domestic level were taken on the agenda. Program of Family Counseling centers, Capacity building of Mahila Suraksha Samiti (Vigilance committee) appointed at office of Superintendent of Police were designed, Planned and implemented in order to rescue the women in the pain and misery.

The program focused at gender sensitization as well as eradication of gender-based violent behavior on the women. The program also intended at building family a strong institution for conservation of the harmony in the society. Concept of “Civil Policing” and “Bear foot Counselors” in the rural communities were launched for the protection of the women folk.

An innovative training for the “village level bare foot Counselors” was Designed, Planned and organized, in which large number of women animators participated in the training. 3 exclusive books are published by AFARM.

Forum for Women Headed Voluntary Organization :

The post effect of the earthquake in Latur and Osmanabad district resulted in enormous raise in the Women headed organizations. These women headed organizations took up outstanding programs for the women folk. They also aimed at providing relief and rescue to the Earthquake effected survivals in the disaster-hit districts. Their zeal to work for the betterment for the underprivileged, made them effective in the work but due to limitations like lack of information & working skills, their work many a times suffered indefinite loss. It is in view of this that AFARM in the year 2000 took the initiative to provide them platform for sharing & learning from each others experiences.

The Forum is aimed at Empowerment of the women headed organizations and Capacity building of their Trustee. The forum evolved it's own guiding principals for membership of the network. In course of time as per the requirements few amendments were done in the eligibility of membership democratically.

The attendance in the monthly meetings and the involvement in the training programs held exclusively for the forum were compulsory.The common programs of the network, for each month were chalked out unanimously in the monthly meeting.

The members of the forum identified certain priority issues, which needed concentration on both skill training & vision building like- Sexual Harassment, Domestic and Social Violence,-Women Health , Gender Equality,-Women Education, Management of Voluntary Organizations,-Financial independence of the women, Management of Voluntary Organizations, Capacity Building of Voluntary workers, Children, Adolescent boys, Adolescent girls, Young girls etc.

212 Organizations participate in the monthly meetings enrolling 244 members.A training program accompanied the meeting on the subject unanimously selected in order to enhance the capacity of the members. In order to enhance their skill & bring about refinement in their work, the training programs played a crucial role in the entire program. The variety of training programs exclusively organized by AFARM resulted in innovative ways of information dissemination patterns reaching up to their Target Group.

The Forum later on shifted to the programs related to Organic Farming. They started organizing awareness camps for the women farmers in order to propagate the idea of Organic farming. The female farmers demanded the organization of trainings. Presently the members of Forum have taken up the activity of trainings in Organic farming practices.

ICT & Women :

AFARM alongwith Marathmoli jointly conducted the ‘ICT enabled Training Program for Women’s Empowerment’ for members of the Mahila Vyaspeeth. The training modules were designed as a comprehensive Training of Trainers (TOT) program.

The objective is to build capacity of grassroots women activists to process information into knowledge; and take action to secure their (& the community’s) entitlements. The curriculum is designed to empower the participants to assume responsibility in their role as citizens of their local communities and the globalized world. It will build women’s capacity to critically perceive information and experiences from the holistic perspective in the context of the contemporary global socio- economic-cultural –political scenario.

At the core of this curriculum is the deliberate positioning of woman’s self identity at the centre. The process of the development of a critical world view will enable women to address and resolve the constant conflict between their responsibilities as a social being and an individual. This will ensure an assessment and consequent redefinition of existing relationships premisedon gender and social equity, and coexistence.

The Impact :

The regular meeting of the members not only created solidarity among them but it also encouraged a healthy competition among them. Sharing of the personal and official experiences enhanced their capacity of Work and Vision. Increased efficiency in skills like report writing, Presentation of work, Account writing & confidence building, decision making, Management of their organization, presentation of expressions & thoughts etc were also the out come of the network activity.