Project OBO: Our Bodies, (Our) Opinions is an awareness effort towards general sex education based in Kolkata. Founded by Mirna Guha, this project is enabled by the Lattoo Fellowship, Sri Ratan Tata Trust, and supported by Anjali, a Kolkata-based mental health and human rights initiative, as well as Start Up!, a Delhi based organization which provides a range of non-financial services to incubate and launch new social justice initiatives across the country.
Project OBO is being funded by Rotary Club, Inner City, Kolkata
We at Project OBO have felt a need to get down to giving matters that are often trivialized or dismissed their due importance. We believe that half-baked understandings and any kind of taboo aren’t ok at all; and that any question anyone may have relating to their bodies, sexualities, feelings, and emotions are worthy of discussion; and every doubt worth clearing. So, we’ve gotten together to create a space where one can ask any question that may be on their mind, and help us in answering those of their peers and friends.
Our Bodies, (Our) Opinions is a series of workshops dealing with issues such as:
◙ Adam / Eve teasing
◙ Child Sexual Abuse
◙ Domestic Violence
◙ HIV/AIDS
◙ Sexual Development
◙ Sexual Identities / Gender Diversity
Project OBO will also welcome anything (relevant to Project OBO) that one would like to talk about.
Besides the workshops, Project OBO also wants to provide:
◙ Access to NGOs, professionals, and counselors
◙ A platform to develop ideas and projects
◙ Opportunities to volunteer with NGOs, and to work with any of the above issues
Plan of Action:
This space will be created through workshops, in non-institutional spaces, which will use some form of expression i.e. art, music, dance, poetry etc to create awareness about the above issues. Participants will be encouraged to think for themselves and create a work of art, which best expresses, their opinions on the issues. These works of art will be showcased during a series of exhibitions, later this year, in both public and private places in the city. These exhibitions, held in schools, colleges, art galleries and other public places across the city, will highlight the voice of the youth and create mass awareness about the issues which although very important, are hardly talked about.
Project OBO, through its work, also intends to increase the learning capacities of young students and rejuvenate them by allowing a space for the expression of unheard ideas and latent talents. The goal is to broaden their outlook and make them more responsible and aware citizens and empower them with necessary information to protect themselves from all that threatens a peaceful existence.
Project OBO places great emphasis on being a safe, comfortable and open space, where one is wholly free to speak one's mind.
But in order to do this we need your help.
Tell us what you think or what you want.
Be a part of Project OBO.
Best wishes,
Team OBO.
Team OBO is:
Mirna Guha - Founder, Facilitation, Resources, Modules
Athena Mondal - Logistics & Documentation
Priyanka Kumar - Creative Team & Publicity
Soumi Sarkar - Creative Team & Publicity
Shreya Sanghani - Facilitation, Resources, Modules
Nayantara Mazumder - Facilitation, Resources, Modules
Arjun Raj- Documentation, assistance
Lav Kanoi- Documentation, assistance
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