Even though Jagrati, 11, is shy, she loves going to school.
When a young boy started to abuse her during school hours, she found it hard to advocate for her needs. It soon turned into an ongoing issueand her attendance declined.
Her aunt, whom she lives with,had been a key supporter of Jagrati’s education. She was a regular at the women’s meetings run by our project where our team members work withmothers and guardians to promote education for girls.
Her aunt could tell something was wrong. After watching Jagrati’s mental health worsen and her attendance drop, she managed to encourage Jagrati to tell her about the abuse.
Her aunt immediately went to the women’s group for advice and, together, they represented Jagrati at a meeting with the school’s committee and explained what had been taking place.
Once the school were aware of the issue, they met with the boy and ensured that it would not happen again.
Issues like this are common and just one of the reasons the drop-out rate for girls is very high. With support and advocacy, barriers to education can be resolved and girls like Jagrati can continue to pursue their dreams.
Links:
Vasudha is 60 years old and works as a garbage collector. She works long hours and lives in a house made of tin sheets. She shares this house with her husband, four daughters and two sons.
Despite her sons being old enough to earn a living, they are both alcoholics and use her earnings to drink heavily. They are abusive to her when she tries to spend the money elsewhere and she often feels unsafe in their presence. Vasudha feels trapped and unable to escape from this cycle of addiction that is ingrained within the family.
She began attending support groups, which are run by our partners, where women are encouraged to share their difficulties and create a safe space. At first, Vasudha felt so much shame about what was happening with her sons, that she couldn’t share. But the impact of hearing other women open up about their triumphs and struggles affected her deeply, so she continued to attend.
One day she felt strong enough to talk…
Afterwards, her peers from the group went with her to the local police station, where she received the support needed to face her sons. A police officer spoke to them about their abusive behaviour and outlined what would happen if it continued and the legal action that would be taken. With the backing of the women’s group and the local police, her sons promised they would tackle their alcohol dependence. This is being monitored by the project.
Vasudha can now lead her life independently and use her wage according to her wishes, and hers alone.
Without your support, women like Vasudha can’t see a way out of their circumstances. All it takes is community support and encouragement for big changes to happen and self-confidence to thrive.
Thank you so much!
Links:
Sharmilla had just finished her school exams and felt like the whole world was waiting before her. She was 17, full of energy and charisma for life, then her grandmother said she must marry someone and soon.
Sharmilla’s family struggle financially. There are eight people in the household and marriage can be a way out of this. Usually, girls at this young age don’t feel like they have any autonomy and yield to their family’s wishes. However, Sharmilla had been to our project’s meetings. This project focuses on teaching girls and their families the importance of education and a life committed to choose for themselves.
Sharmilla’s mother had also been to the meetings and has reconsidered what she wanted for her five daughters. So, together they discussed with Sharmilla’s father and grandmother, the negative and potentially harmful effects of child marriage.
‘I want to be educated and stand on my own two feet’said Sharmilla with a newfound confidence.
Thanks to the support of her mother and increased knowledge of her rights, the marriage has been cancelled. With the support and encouragement of the project, Sharmilla wants to continue education.
To so many young girls, this would never be an option. Our work still has a long way to go in successfully changing long-standing attitudes in society, towards girls and education. Like we have seen with Sharmilla’s mother, family support is crucial and a core focus of this project.
Thanks to your support, we are continuing to facilitate these important conversations and keep girls in school.
Links:
Did you know that in India, 12 million children are married before their 18th birthday?
Niharika is a mother to a young girl, Wakeeta. In their community, child marriage is extremely common. This is particularly true in low-income families like theirs, as the cost of providing for their children is simply too high. Sadly, this is likely to be Wakeeta’s fate too.
However, Wakeeta began attending nearby classes run by our partner’s project, encouraging young girls to come together and engage in group activities. Niharika could see how much Wakeeta was enjoying it, so she signed up for the mother’s support workshops too. There, they discussed child marriage and the possible harmful effects it can have on girls and their education.
There was a big shift in Niharika. She became informed for the first time about the importance of education and how it could have such a huge impact on her daughter’s life.
Niharika decided not to marry Wakeeta at a young age, placing her in education instead, with the supported by the group.
In spite of criticism and judgement from family and peers, Niharika remains firm in her decision to postpone Wakeeta’s marriage and pursue higher education for her daughter.
This shows the influence these classes can have, shifting the trajectory of young girl’s lives forever.
Thanks to you, we can work towards freedom and choice for more girls.
Links:
Girls often receive abuse whilst either walking to or whilst studying at school, this frequently leads to them dropping out of school or low attendance at the very least.
Sai feared going to school, as on the journey there, she was harassed and teased by boys in a neighbouring community. As you can imagine, this caused a lot of stress and meant she had to face the unfair dilemma of whether to get an education or not.
Luckily, Sai had good friends, who wanted to support her, so they decided to alert the teacher what was taking place every morning. Unfortunately, their teacher wouldn’t listen and refused to take action, leaving them without help.
The girls were so determined, they took this issue and voiced it in one of our partner’s community groups. They've created a safe support network for young girls to voice their feelings and express any difficulties. With the kind listening ear of one of the group leaders, they decided to collectively support their friend Sai and together they would approach the group of boys and ask for them to stop. This is no easy task! But together they had the courage to do so.
The next day on their way to school, they approached the boys, as they have learnt about their rights from the community groups, they said if it carried on, they would go to the police. The boys hearing this, promised to never again call Sai names and since then they have left her alone for good!
Inspired by this powerful example of what friendship and community support can do, Sai and her friends had regained their confidence. They wanted to make sure no other girl went through this. So, with the help of our partners, local leaders met with the girls and heard their story. Impressed by the example and saddened to hear this regularly happens to so many girls, local leaders offered their services and attitudes transformed in that meeting.
Thanks to increased awareness of their rights, girls can collectively come together and make change, this is where your generous support is going to. Thank you!
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can recieve an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
