By Sonia Chaudhary | Secretary to the Director
Dear Friends,
After a long summer, we finally have monsoon rains bringing cool breeze in Vrindavan, India. This breeze is quite literally entering the lives of our girls who passed their 12th grade exams with flying colors last month. Our third batch, this time with 40 girls, is all set to explore the world. Very excited to finish their school, they are now looking forward to walking to the college to become graduates in the years to come.
The most exciting part is that some of these girls have also taken up part time jobs along with their college studies to support their families. They are making full use of their education and skills that they learnt at school. In this report we are going to tell you about these girls who are now contributing back to their families and to the society, making this project a success by Walking the Talk.
Neetu: She is an Odissi dancer, which she started learning at the school at a young age and since then she has been a part of various school programs charming the spectators with her graceful dance moves. Neetu is 21 years old. Her own determination and encouragement from the school helped her to pursue what she liked doing the most. She is proud of herself and aims to be a dance teacher so she can teach this very beautiful traditional dance form to many other girls like her. Neetu is now in college and along with that she does dance performances at various events in Vrindavan. This way she supports herself, doing what she loves to do.
“Dancing is like dreaming with your feet”, says Neetu.
Anuradha: Here is one brave girl who not only has the courage to stand for herself, she also knows how to deal with difficult situations. She is 18 years old. She lives with her parents and 3 siblings. Her sister Radha is 19 years old. Anuradha fought for herself when her father tried to marry her off at a young age. She raised her voice against it and shaved off her head to save herself from getting married. She also informed the school authorities and the marriage was stopped after intervention. Today she has successfully finished her school and is now in college. She takes tution classes for younger children and supports herself and her family. She also does embroidery.
Anuradha says: "I stood up for myself. I deserve to be educated and not to be married at 16. I hate to be called a victim of circumstance. I fought against a difficult situation and came out as a winner."
Radha: She is 19 years old and is now in college. She is Anuradha's sister and does beautiful embriodery, which is her hobby, and she plans to make it her profession as well. Today Radha, along with her sister Anuradha and her friend Roompi, has started a small-scale business where they take embroidery orders and also make their own products and sell them locally.
“I sew threads of happiness and colour. I feel good about what I do. “ says Radha
Roompi: She is 18 years old and has just finished her 12th grade. She lives with her parents and 2 sisters. Their mother and father work hard to support the family. Roompi is a fine artist and draws very well. Painting comes naturally to her. Today Roompi, along with her college classes, takes painting orders and also does embroidery.
Roompi says, “I dream my paintings and I paint my dream.” Painting has changed my life and helps me to deal with difficult situations."
We hope to share more success stories with you in the years to come. Thank you all for making this possible for these girls and for hundreds of others that you continue to support through our project. We feel that the best way to thank you is to share these stories with you, to show you that your contribution is making a huge difference in someone's life.
Thank you for giving them this chance. Now they are ready to give back to the world. There are hundreds of other girls under this project that dream to give back one day, and with your continued support, this will be possible year after year.
By Sonia | Secretary to the Director
By Sri Radhika Dasi | Project Leader
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