A 23-year-old tribal woman has been walking a path that most in her community don’t even talk about. Her family too frowns upon her, but Pano Hembrom continues to educate teenagers in her village about practicing safe sex and how to plan a family.

“I know suffering. I have seen the poor suffer up close. And government officers neglect the poor even in programmes designed for their welfare,” she says.

Pano is a dedicated resource member of the Youth Access to Reproductive Health Services (YARS) and spends much of her time teaching. She recently cleared her matriculation exam with help from Tata Steel’s ‘Family Initiatives Foundation’.

Pano had stopped going to school after her father, a railway employee had a paralysis attack. Her mother, too, a daily wage earner, couldn’t work any more after her health started deteriorating.

“I have to look after my family and my people. I had to abandon the idea of continuing with my studies at an early age. But thanks to the Tata Foundation, I have taken my matriculation examinations. Education is very important as it will equip me to serve better,” she says.

Pano has helped transform her closed community and today, opportunities like government development work contracts come their way, something unimaginable even five years ago. Once, she staged a protest that led to a re-survey of below poverty  line (BPL) villagers so they could be issued fresh cards.

All this has turned Pano into an icon for her community’s youngsters. The Tata Steel Foundation that is associated with YARS conferred the status of a ‘peer educator’ upon her.

“My only mission is to arm the members of my society with the latest information on health-related issues.

Source: Hindustan Times, 25 March 2008