Send 60 Girls in Pakistan to School

Nadia (alias) comes from the village of Dhulli in the District of Chakwal. Her family financially is not well off. She has seven sisters, none of which were able to complete their education. Nadia loves to study and even though she was taken out of school in 8th grade, Girls Educational International is happy to say that she is back in school, now in 10th grade. GEI covers her transportation costs to and from school, which is approximately $70.00 a year. 

Javeria (alias) is also from the same district, but a village a bit further out. She is 14 years old. Although she was set to get married, after expressing interest in her studies, we are happy to learn that her wedding was called off. She is currently in 9th grade. Girls Education International is delighted to cover the fees of enrolling her back in school.  Because of her village's proximity, her transportation costs are about $100 a year. 

These and similar stories are what keep our small team at Girls Education motivated and excited to have this opportunity in the first place, to reach young people in some of the most marginalized groups of society. 

It is our pleasure on this International Day of Women to highlight our partnership with Pakistan organization Bedari that facilitates our support of 60 young women from five different villages. If we, together with your help, couldn't provide help with their transportation to and from school from their remote villages, these and other young women would possibly have very different paths in life, usually picked out for them and often against their will. So, thank you!

We wish you, our supporters, a beautiful Women's Day this year. We hope it is filled with smart, creative, interesting and beautiful women in your personal lives. Women that have a choice to make their own decisions, good and the bad ones. Enjoy them, support them and love them. And please remember that you have touched lives of other young women who also appreciate you and are forever grateful for your kindness and your understanding that supporting one girl, supports men, women and the entire community we all live in, this beautiful yet fragile planet that we all call home. 

Thank you!

Tamrika

• Pakistan_Photo_3.pdf (PDF)
  

Winston Churchill said: "We make a living by what we get, we make a life by what we give". This thought has been with me for the last few weeks as I have been thinking about what it means to give and what it means to receive. I realize that what I give is so insignificant compared to the difference it can make in receiver's life. Thus, a question begs, should I give more? Should I give with more intent? Perhaps, should I give with more gratitude? With gratitude that I am able to give and that this is a gift for me as much as it is for the receiver. 

I will continue to strive to give more than I receive and I will do it with gratitude. I want to extend this gratitude to all of you that make our world a more beautiful and just place, a place where everyone has access to choices, choices that education makes possible. Thank you for your continous support, it means more to us and to the students that you support, than you might realize. Thank you. We wish you wonderful holidays.

Tamrika

Recently I came upon a quiz that listed and ranked different activities that individuals, companies or policy makers can take to lead a greener life, ways we can all reduce the damaging impact we often have on our planet and curb the climate change. Among some obvious and less obvious solutions, there was “increase access to family planning’ and “educate girls”. In fact controlling our population growth, giving women choices for family planning and education are the only two solutions that are directly tied for total projected emissions reductions (quiz link below). 

Girl’s Education International is committed to giving women equal access to choices in life. The mission of Girls Education International is to expand and support educational opportunities for underserved girls and women in remote and undeveloped regions of the world. That’s exactly what we are able to do with your generous support in 5 remote villages of Pakistan. Together with our partner organization in Pakistan, Bedari, we pay for transportation and fees for 60 girls who most likely wouldn’t have an opportunity to further their education beyond the first few grades that their villages provide. The impact that this might have on these young women is profound. Our attention to them literally changes their lives. What a privilege we have to have this kind of an opportunity. 

Below are some words from our students directly, connected by Bedari representatives in the field. 

15 year old Alishba, when asked how has her education helped her become independent, said: “I have tried to use my education to make myself independent. One example of this is that I now tutor small children to earn money so that I can attain further education”. When the same question was asked of Areena from the same village, she responded: “Since I am educated, I don’t owe anything to anyone and can differentiate between the good choices from the bad". When asked about their future plans with regards to education, work, marriage and independence, Alishba said that she wanted to be a doctor so that she can help treat people of the village, which Areena wants to have a job, so she can support her parents. 15 year old Muneeba from a neighboring village said that education has given her ambition and her biggest goal is to be independent and gain respect. 

These are the words that remind us to send our greatest gratitude to you, the avid supporters of Girls Education. Thank you!

Please don’t forget that October 11th is the International Day of the Girl. The day aims to highlight and address the needs and challenges girls face around the world, while promoting girls' empowerment and the fulfillment of their human rights. 

We hope this month brings to all of us our renewed commitment to this cause!

Links:

• The most effective ways to curb climate change

Chalwalian Village is situated in the district Chakwal. Agriculture is the major profession of the people in this village. Crops are cultivated twice in a year. Wheat and peanuts are the main crops of this region.  Usually all family members should be involved during the harvesting of these crops.

Peanut harvesting takes time of three months (October, November and December), during which girls education efforts suffer as they can't attend the classes. Due to girls "small" and "thin" fingers, it is preferred that the girls perform the task of searching for peanuts by digging th soil instead of boys and adults. 

There are eight girls that Girls Education International supports with their studies in the village of Chalwali. These girls decided among themselves that they will not do the peanut work during October –December and will focus on their studies instead. Missing three months of school would mean that they cannot take the exams in December necessary to pass to the next grade. 

So this season, when parents asked the girls to join in the field for peanut picking the girl refused by saying that their studies suffer and that they will not go to field. They asked to have the work equally distributed among the boys, the girls and the adults instead. 

To our delight, the parents of the girls responded positively. They also advised the girls to pay attention to their studies.

The girls expressed thankfulness to Bedari and Girls Education International that they have enabled them to express their wishes and feelings with their parents. They said that they felt empowered to express their feelings due to the support and encouragement to contiue their studeis from the organization. They are also thankful to their parents that they gave them a chance of having the education.

It is those stories filled with courage and commitment to education and positive societal change that keep our spirits high and our dedicaton to our work strong. But it is only through your support that it is possible to give those young women access to education, sense of empowerment and goal of bettering thier lives and lives of other women in the community. We thank you for that, Girls Education International supporters. 

With the permissions of the student that shared this report with us, we share her photo with you.  

Dear Girls Education International supporters,

When Billy Collin, an American poet, said "If ever there were a spring day so perfect...", he must have been talking about March 8th - International Womens Day. This day we celebrate women that have changed the world through their inventions and art, women who have faught and who have asked for peace, women who have taught us in public and in the privacy of our homes, how to live and love. We celebrate all of us among them that are fortunate to have a voice and all the others that still strugle daily to stand on an equal ground with their brothers, fathers and sons. 

Our project is simple. We give access to education to 60 young women in remote villages of Pakistan to attend school by providing them with basic trasnportaiton, which literally determines their ability or inability to continue learning which direclty impacts their future and all of ours consequently.

This month your support will by matched 50% by Safer World Fund Matching Campaign in the honour of Women's Day. Please take this opportunity to continue making the difference in the lives of those young women and while you are at it, honour yourself (or the loved ones) and other beautiful women in your lives!

Happy March 8th and thank you for your continuous support.