Ginette had the brilliant opportunity to partner with SECMOL (The Students’ Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh) and deliver our PurpleLily Life Skills and Financial Literacy training to their students and while experiencing a month of living in this unique campus.
SECMOL is a NGO that offers a foundation year for grade 10 students who have had some academic difficulties to pass the national yearly test and additionally, they provide a stimulating and safe place for college students to stay while attending college. They also offer a 3 year Solar Power programme to a group of students. The students are usually between 18-24 years old. There is always a waiting list and a strict process is required to select the lucky 80 students to join the SECMOL life.
Ladakh is a remote area in the far north of India, high in the Himalayas between Tibet (China) and Pakistan. It is cut off from any road access for 6 months of the year and the only way to go to Ladakh in the winter is via plane. Due to this isolation, the Ladakhis have been able to preserve their distinctive and rich culture, language and way of living.
SECMOL’s campus is a one of kind and such a special place. Although it is situated in the harsh terrain and cold climate of Ladakh, it totally operates on solar power, compost toilets and self-reliance in terms of food and milk (they grow their own organic vegetables and have cows). The students receive daily academic classes in English, Mathematics, Social Science, Hindi and Urdu languages but SECMOL provides so much more than this. It promotes personal responsibilities, team work, building confidence, developing an awareness of the importance of the environment, innovative and critical thinking. SECMOL empowers the students by teaching skills that can be used in their daily lives within and outside the SECMOL environment.
PurpleLily’s visit was perfectly timed as a new group of students were just starting to settle in. Usually PurpleLily delivers our programmes only to women & girls, but this time, we included the young men in some of the workshops.
Over 4 weeks, we delivered a series of workshops which included Building Confidence, Communication, Presentation Skills, Goal Setting, Financial Literacy (1 & 2), Positive Thinking, Motivation and 5 Healthy Habits.
The students were highly participative and engaged during and after the workshops. Some of the concepts were new, such as setting goals, creating an action plan, the power of positive thinking, self- talk, power pose and of course the Financial Literacy workshops were highly appreciated as very few had been exposed to managing money steps.
As per usual, PurpleLily offers the workshops in an interactive and fun atmosphere for the participants while providing very practical steps that we encourage to use in their daily lives.
The feedback has been positive as indicated in a number of testimonials:
I loved all the PurpleLily workshops. I have learned so much. I feel more confident and I use the tools Ginette taught us every day. Disket – 17 years old – Matho
The PurpleLily workshops were very good for me. I feel more confident and I’m positive that I will achieve my dreams. Tashi Dorkhar – 18 years old – Nubra
I have learned to set goals, manage money but more importantly, to be confident and believe in myself. Thank you to Ginette and PurpleLily. Chozom – 17 years old – Zanskar
