Today I want to talk about a very interesting phenomenon that we’ve found among our Yellow Rooms children. When we write funding applications or talk about Yellow Rooms with friends and supporters, there are certain elements that we highlight/terms we use to define Yellow Rooms and their impact. E.g. how YRs act as safe spaces, how they are gender inclusive, its impact on the community and parents, impact on girls, their strong role in reducing child marriages, especially for girls. Ensuring girls continue their education.

Many of these are not data points we collect as a before and after and are often just anecdotal evidence. For example- We believe that Yellow Rooms reduce instances of domestic violence and abuse and drug use.

Recently I went to a Yellow Rooms with a visitor and they were talking to some older children and asking them what they liked the most about their Yellow Rooms. I was surprised to find that the children were able to articulate all of these as impacts of Yellow Rooms. Maybe not in the same vocabulary as we do, but very clearly. This was very surprising for me because some of the children had been with Yellow Rooms from very young ages and may not have a good “before” and “after” reference point to compare, yet they were conscious of how certain elements were because of Yellow Rooms or the impact of Yellow Rooms. It also showed a certain level of social-emotional intelligence and  maturity that makes us very proud of our children.

Achintya