By Louise Andre | Communications Associate
As the festival of Diwali spreads light and warmth around India, we at Educate Girls would like to thank all Global Giving donors for their generous donations!
Ensuring quality education for girls and helping them avoid child marriage is a daunting challenge, but thanks largely to your help; we already have achieved a lot in rural Rajasthan, viz:
- During the last 6 years, Educate Girls has managed to bring back 52,000 girls back to school.
- Girls’ enrollment has gone from 85% to 99% in the districts where Educate Girls runs its programs; which effectively means that most girls are now enrolled in the nearest government schools.
- We have seen a drastic improvement in learning outcomes. 60% of the children who attend our schools are able to read a simple story in Hindi. This figure was only 15% before we started working in these schools.
- Our program has rapidly grown from 500 schools to 5,500 schools in the last 6 years. Today there are more than 500,000 children who have benefit from improved teaching and better learning environments!
While these results are incredibly encouraging, we still have a long way to go before we manage even a semblance of parity in girls’ education and change the overall socio-economic situation for girls. Many of them are still kept away from school and denied basic education because of the age old custom of child marriage.
Last week we recounted the story of Meena, a young child bride whose parents have agreed to let her pursue her education. She is now studying and getting the opportunity to make a life for herself. Unfortunately, Meena is not the only child bride in her school.
Nisha, a 9 year-old student, too was destined to become a child bride until Varsha, one of Educate Girls’ volunteers, intervened and took action. Varsha met Nisha’s parents as soon as she heard the news. Varsha not only convinced them to cancel the wedding, but she also enumerated the several benefits of sending girls to school and convinced Nisha’s parents to send her to school.
Now, Nisha enjoys going to school and with the help of Educate Girls, she will be able to complete her education before she gets married.
This would not have been possible without the support of donors like you. We thank you for your generous donations. It does mean a lot to these girls and their future.
*Name changed to protect the identity of the child
By Louise Andre | Communications Associate
By Louise Andre | Communications Associate
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