By Susan Haynes | Project Assistant
Since this project’s launch in March, our Girls’ Education program team in India dedicated significant time to conducting life skills workshops to help girls practice and build their skills and confidence. Examples of these workshops included activities like putting on a creative puppetry workshop to engage girls in personal goal development and planning. This activity helped the young women to understand the importance of creating and achieving goals. The life skills training also helped the program participants begin to identify future career/educational plans. Other life skills workshops conducted covered a diverse range of topics including:
In addition to life skills, our India team organized several field trips aimed at exposing girls to a wide variety of educational and career possibilities. One field trip included a trip to “Mahila Haat,” a new, first-of-its-kind “women’s market” in Delhi featuring predominantly women vendors and artisans showcasing their handicrafts and wares. Participants met and interacted with women entrepreneurs, learning what it was like to be a business owner. Through such types of experiential learning, girls gain the opportunity to travel from their home villages, explore their country, and meet with role models from whom they can gain inspiration and valuable advice.
Thanks to your generosity, the Girls’ Education program in India has raised $600 through GlobalGiving. This amount raised translates to training for eight mentors in the program, or education for almost three girls for one year. Please see below for a story of a Girls’ Education program graduate, Anita, which provides a more in-depth look at the impact this program has on its participants.
Thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to updating you on our project activities in the next report.
A Room to Read Graduate: Story from the Field
Convincing her parents to allow her to continue school was a challenge Anita faced not once, but twice. First, when she was about to enter 9th grade, her parents told her that she had to leave school to prepare for marriage. Luckily, with Room to Read’s support, she was able to complete 12th grade and she graduated at the top of her class.
When Anita graduated secondary school in 2009, she was determined to continue her studies, but her parents again insisted that she focus on marriage. Her mother was adamant about it and would not consider Anita’s wishes to go to university. Although disappointed, Anita was not surprised by her parents’ response so she asked some of her teachers to help her convince her parents. A small contingent of her teachers, together with staff from a local NGO, visited Anita’s parents and explained that they should be proud of their daughter who had done so well in school and they should now consider allowing her to study further. Anita’s mother, the more vocal of the two parents, still refused to reconsider her decision. Her father, a vegetable vendor, concurred with his wife, citing financial problems and the economic challenges of continuing to support Anita with further schooling.
However, in time Anita’s supporters were able to address the father’s main concern by offering to pay Anita’s school fees if he would allow Anita to continue her studies. Her father agreed. The next day, Anita immediately went to the university to enroll in a bachelor’s course in education.
Anita is now in her final year at a university in Delhi and in addition to her studies, she works at a stock broker’s office to earn extra income. Here, she earns Rs 5000 (just over US$100) every month, apart from the incentives she gets for enrolling new clients. Anita gets only two Sundays off each month but she is not complaining.
“I consider myself lucky to have this job when so many graduates and post graduates are searching for an opportunity. I am eternally grateful for the support that Room to Read gave me. Apart from the opportunity to study and complete my schooling, the program helped me to overcome my inhibition and become more assertive. I have now realized that keeping quiet or being scared or shy is not the solution.”
She adds, “I am the first person in my family to be educated, and I felt very proud when I was able to read some documents for my father recently and prevent us from being cheated by our neighbors. Perhaps this was the day when my father too realized the value of my education. He told my mother that he was proud of me.”
Ten years from now, Anita hopes that she is married with two children (preferably one boy and one girl) and expects to be working. Anita added that she would ensure that her children would have a better life and more importantly that her daughter would have equal opportunities. She concludes, “Room to Read has helped to change my life beyond my wildest dreams, and I would like to thank them for this opportunity.”
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 receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
