Study Hall Educational Foundation, India
About Study Hall Educational Foundation (SHEF)
Mona Partner Since 2008
Study Hall Educational Foundation (SHEF), situated in Lucknow, India, supports an impressive portfolio of initiatives aimed at educating and empowering underprivileged girls in urban and rural India. Since it began in 1986, SHEF has reached over 5,000,000 students through direct and indirect initiatives in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.
For nearly four decades, SHEF has worked to redefine education, building a network of nine educational institutions and four outreach initiatives that provide quality education to all children, with a special focus on girls. Using a holistic, inclusive, life-outcomes based approach, SHEF has re-cast education across the entire range of challenges that children face in building their agency and personhood.
The Challenge
With 1.3 billion people, India comprises 20% of the world's population. Uttar Pradesh is the most populous state in India, and SHEF works across all 75 of its districts. With a population that is ⅔ that of the United States, if UP were a country it would be the 5th most populous in the world!
According to The World Factbook, 22% of Indians earn less than $1.90/day. While the population is also very young, with 50% under 25 years old, there is a shortage of qualified teachers and it is common for government schools to have classes with up to 120 students. One-third of the world's child brides (5 million girls) are in India and 1 million girls are killed in the womb through selective termination. 50% of married women report domestic violence.
The Solution: SHEF Programs
Aarohini Girls Empowerment Program
With support by Mona Foundation, the Aarohini program promotes education for girls, prevents violence and child marriage, and empowers girls to see themselves as equal persons deserving of respect. Its pedagogy is unique and complex. The initiative is primarily a teacher training program, which equips teachers with the skills and resources to promote change in their schools and communities. The program uses critical feminist pedagogy and community mobilization to create a chain of positive influence that starts with teachers as agents of change and extends to students and parents in order to protect the rights of students.
GyanSetu Community Education Centers
"One-room Schools"
Gyan Setus (one-room schools) provide a way to educate kids living in abject poverty in urban slums or rural village where there is no access to clean water, sanitation, or schools, bring them to grade level and transition them to the public school system to give them a fighting chance for a better life for themselves and for their families. Overtime, Gyan Setus have proven to be an effective solution to the chronic problem of education systems that have isolated and alienated the children on the margin.
Mona began supporting this initiative in 2017 with a commitment to fund 14 schools ($3,000/schoo/year) serving 30-40 students. The cost covers the salary and travel expense of a qualified teacher, school uniforms, supplies, and an occasional meal when possible. In 2024, 121 of these centers educated 3,067 children, trained 118 teachers and successfully transitioned 900 out-of-school children into formal education.
GyanSetu centers also act as hubs of community transformation and are now also offering
early childhood education, adult literacy programs, digital literacy classes, life skills and specific sessions to educate mothers on the basics of health and hygiene, domestic violence, child marriage, alcoholism, etc. and connect them with community services that can save their lives or protect them. The videos below show the evolution of this initiative all the way to 2023 Gyan Setus 10th year anniversary sports extravaganza!
Digital Study Hall
“YouTube meets Netflix in a schoolhouse with a dirt floor.”
To address the shortage of qualified teachers in poor and remote rural schools in India, Digital Study Hall (DSH) creates videos of the best teachers in actual classroom sessions and provides them free of charge to all teachers and students in poor public schools. Ongoing teacher training is offered to reinforce the quality of teaching and learning.
With the country in lockdown and all schools closed to prevent the spread of COVID19, thousands of teachers and students are now flocking to the DSHONLINE platform. And it is working! When Mona started supporting this initiative 10 years ago, DSH was offered in 23 schools. In 2024, then now YouTube channel now has 127,486 subscribers and 232,900 unique users with over 22.5 million views.
Prerna Girls School
K-12 Education
This school provides K-12 education to
1,200 underprivileged girls
using its own unique pedagogy to help them see themselves as equal and autonomous individuals deserving of respect, to understand the oppression they face, and to develop the skills to overcome it. Mona provides scholarships for Prerna students and supports a number of graduates to attend Study Hall College.
India’s Daughters Campaign
changes hearts and minds
This community-based campaign raises awareness of gender violence and child marriage and promotes girl’s education and equality. The campaign included drama competitions, film making, poster making, essay writing, and poem writing competitions, and awarded scholarships of INR 1,54,000 (~$1,870USD) to the winners.
SHEF held an annual India's Daughters Campaign (IDC) award ceremony. In attendance were Mr. PK Tripathi, Joint Director of Samj Kalyan (Social Welfare), and representatives from organizations such as UNICEF, Room to Read, AIDWA, AALI, Jijiwisha Society, Robin Hood Army, DIET, and Manavsrijan. For the past two years, the IDC has focused on boys, with this year's theme being "It's time for men and boys to change," and aimed at educating boys and men to challenge patriarchy and become advocates for gender justice.
Study Hall College
Established in 2016, Study Hall College is one of SHEF's nine quality educational institutions. With affordable fees designed to cater to students from rural and socially disadvantaged backgrounds, the college offers undergraduate degrees to those who might otherwise lack access to higher education, including Prerna Girls School graduates supported by Mona scholarships. Affiliated with the University of Lucknow, the college combines academic excellence with the caring, holistic, life-outcome approach that defines all SHEF institutions.
The college offers four undergraduate programs—Business Administration, Computer Applications, Commerce, and Journalism and Mass Communication—preparing students for meaningful careers through practical experiential learning and leadership development. The college maintains partnerships with leading employers for placements and internships, and in partnership with the U.S. Department of State, hosts the English Access Microscholarship program, with students receiving fully-funded scholarships to study at community colleges in the United States.
How we help
The Mona Foundation has partnered with SHEF since 2008. Since then, SHEF has scaled its model of education from 21 to 2,320 government schools. Mona currently supports five SHEF programs:
- Digital Study Hall
- GyanSetu Community Education Centers (one-room schools)
- Prerna Girls School and Study Hall College (scholarships)
- Aarohini Girls Empowerment Program
- India’s Daughters Campaign
2025 Achievements
387,434 students
educated, 28,126 teachers
trained, and 2,139,125 parents and community members
engaged across all programs
- 87 GyanSetu Centers active, with 21 flagship centers now fully community-owned, educating 1,645 children
- Aarohini Initiative trained 27,974 teachers to lead gender justice dialogues with girls and boys, engaging 78,600 students
- Aarohini students, teachers, and staff members prevented over 2,300 cases of child marriage, sexual harassment, and domestic violence
- Trained 450 master trainers for the State Education Department, enabling gender-responsive education to scale to 46,000 schools across Uttar Pradesh
- 175 scholarships provided to girls at Prerna Girls School and Study Hall College
- Digital Study Hall expanded its library to 2,300+ educational videos and shared 1,000 videos for offline use in rural government schools, reaching 203,261 unique viewers
- India's Daughters Campaign in Uttar Pradesh raised commitment on upholding laws against childhood marriage, engaging 102,435 students across 1,611 schools, and reaching 1,738,940 community members
2026 Plans, $297,500
- GyanSetu:
- Expand centers and continue transitioning toward full community ownership and self-sustainability
- Continue adult literacy centers serving women and add digital literacy centers as needed
- Bring a traveling academic festival to GyanSetu communities
- Aarohini Initiative:
- Train teachers across government schools to deliver gender curricula, reaching rural girls' schools and co-ed Upper Primary Schools
- Conduct a third-party evaluation to assess program impact and generate evidence for policy influence
- DSHOnline:
- Transition from video lessons to an interactive community platform where teachers share classroom practices, learn from peers, and gain recognition
- Scholarships:
- Provide Prerna Girls School and Study Hall College scholarships to support students from low-resource families
- India’s Daughters’ Campaign:
-
Expand to new states
in collaboration with a national government initiative against child marriage , engaging children across schools and targeting faith leaders, local leaders, and community stakeholders
News From SHEF
Raveena’s Courage to Stand Against Child Marriage
March, 2025 - Raveena, an 8th-grade student at a rural school serving low-income girls in Vangram Palia, Lakhimpur Kheri, demonstrated remarkable bravery and leadership during her school break. When she learned that a minor girl in her neighborhood was about to be married, Raveena knew she had to act.
Drawing from the lessons instilled at school, Raveena first approached the girl’s family, appealing to their better judgment and explaining the harm and illegality of child marriage. Despite her earnest efforts, the family dismissed her concerns and continued with their plans.
Undeterred, Raveena remembered the importance of standing firm for what is right. Recalling the guidance she had received at school; she dialed 112 and reported the situation to the police...
Promoting Gender Justice
January 2024 - The Aarohini team selected 86 boys from 43 Upper Primary Schools to participate in the first-ever boys’ camp, cultivating an environment that allows them to reflect on the different gendered experiences in their community, what they can do to address these issues, and how to challenge oppressive societal norms. Last year, SHEF formed a coalition of 40 NGOs to mobilize men and boys to advocate for gender justice.
With your help, Mona is proud to be the Aarohini program's primary supporter and, to be contributing, in partnership with SHEF and their collaborators, to promoting a culture of gender justice across Uttar Pradesh.
Girl's Education and Empowerment in UP Schools
December 2023 - After years of experience and a deepening collaboration with the Ministry of Education, the Government of Uttar Pradesh has now adopted the highly successful Aarohini Girls' Education & Empowerment Program developed by Study Hall Educational Foundation for use in all public schools in the state. This includes implementing the program in:
- 746 KGBV residential schools for low-income girls in grades 6 to 8, reaching over 74,000 girls, and in
- Over 250,000 public schools across Uttar Pradesh.
The Aarohini program trains teachers and mobilizes communities to promote education for girls, prevent child marriage and domestic violence, empower girls to see themselves as equal persons deserving of respect, and raise boys to be champions of gender justice. The Aarohini team is now in process of training teachers at KGBV and co-ed schools to use the program in their classrooms.
Description Title
Spring, 2023 - On day one of the visit, the Mona team visited a government school using Digital Study Hall video lessons, Prerna Girls School, and a community meeting at a GyanSetu center. On day two the team attended the GyanSetu Sports Extravenganza celebrating their 10 year anniversary with 700 students coming together to compete in a variety of activities, visited Study Hall College, and particiapted in a critical dialogue session with the Aarohini Girls Empowerment Program.
Stories of Transformation
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