HELP EDUCATE 750 GIRLS IN RURAL INDIA

       Inauguration of 30 New  IIMPACT Learning Centres             

IIMPACT is now reaching out to girls in 8 states in India.  30 new Learning Centres  were recently established in Dehradun, Uttarakhand and are being sponsored by Titan Industries.  These centres were inaugurated last month.

A Brief Report

Members of the Titan team were present at the inaugural event. Nirmala Tandon, COO, IIMPACT cut the ribbon and lit the ceremonial lamp on this occasion.  All the guests got a chance to interact with the girls enrolled at these centres as well as with the IIMPACT team. The local community members were also present at this occasion and shared their positive views about the advent of IIMPACT in their villages. All of them expressed their gratitude and appreciation.

The day’s festive program began with a welcome song- this was followed by a short but very exciting magic show.  The girls of various  centers had prepared songs for the occasion. The most touching moment was when a little girl, one of the youngest students at the centers, stood up and recited a poem in front of an audience of a 100 people, comprising of students, family members and teachers and the visitors from Titan and IIMPACT. She impressed the guests thoroughly with her confidence and enthusiasm. The theme of most songs was education and about the fact that a girl too has a great desire to study.

The girls were further motivated by the visitors visitors to work hard and to do their families .proud. Examples of IIMPACT’s graduates who have gone on to study further, continuing with their education, were highlighted as inspirational messages to all the young girls present.

Delicious snacks were distributed to mark the end of this very special occasion.

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YOUNG BHUTERI SCORES BRILLIANTLY IN HER 12^th GRADE EXAMINATION

Bhuteri is a young, bright-eyed girl from Bandipura, a remote, dusty village in Rajasthan. In her community, the girl child is still often considered a liability to be married off in her early teens, which was in fact the case with Bhuteri’s two older sisters.

A child of illiterate parents, Bhuteri took the initiative to enroll at IIMPACT, in spite of her parents’ skepticism. It was here that she was provided the opportunity to develop a solid foundation in reading, writing and mathematics, studying 5 hours per day while helping her mother at home. She completed her class V at IIMPACT’s learning centre in Bandipura and then continued with her studies in the local secondary girls' school.  A bright child Bhuteri continued to do very well academically. She has always entertained ambitions of moving to a city college once she graduated from high school and often spoke to IIMPACT’s visiting team members about her desire to study further.

IIMPACT takes great pride in the fact that it maintains contact with its graduates well beyond the ‘IIMPACT years’, hand holding, mentoring and inspiring the girls along the way as they take the road to higher education.  The rest of Bhuteri’s story serves as a great example of how this continuous connection does ‘make a difference’.

A couple of years ago we learnt from Bhuteri that her parents wanted to get her married off - they could not afford to educate her any further on their meager, sporadic income and thought marriage was the only alternative available to them.  IIMPACT’s team personally counseled Bhuteri’s family: her mother, father as well as her brother were spoken with and were urged to allow Bhuteri to follow her dreams. A generous donor stepped forward and promised to help make this feasible by taking care of all expenses involved for her to study at a private school, thus making a commitment to sponsor her future education – an offer her family could not refuse.

Bhuteri recently completed her secondary schooling, a source of great pride and satisfaction for her family and for everyone at IIMPACT. The results of the 12^th Grade exams were declared last week.  An ebullient Bhuteri personally called in to share the news of her outstanding performance – she had secured a first division!

Importantly, Bhuteri’s experience has positively affected her family and her village, as she has instilled the importance of education in her parents and in her siblings. Over the years Bhuteri has taught both her illiterate parents to proudly write their names, recognize alphabets and identify numbers - something they had never dreamed they would be able to do.

Today, the same parents who did not believe in sending their elder daughters even to primary school are now open to thinking about college. Bhuteri’s two younger sisters have followed her into the IIMPACT program, and she is also a role model for her brother’s daughters, who also have started their schooling, as well as for other girls in her community.

Bhuteri’s parents are not alone in taking pride in their daughter’s achievements - the entire village community holds her up as a shining example to all their girls. Education is now viewed as an integral part of their lives.

Not only did IIMPACT affect Bhuteri’s life, it has changed her family’s and community’s thinking about issues such as girl child education and early marriage.

Bhuteri has grown into a smart, confident young woman who is excited by learning and has dreams of going much further in life.

(Many of our donors and well-wishers are already familiar with Bhuteri and now share in our pride.  Bhuteri has previously featured in our newsletters, reports and speaks about her 'IIMPACT experience' in our latest IIMPACT film).