Project Report
| Mar 1, 2013
We're doubling the reach of Blossom Bus this year!
By Erika Keaveney | Executive Director
![Manju (first row, far right) and her peers]()
Manju (first row, far right) and her peers
A special thanks to all of our “girl champs” for your generous efforts during the November 2012 Girl Effect Challenge. Though we were unable to edge into the top six, our supporters mobilized to raise over $10,000 for our Blossom Bus program throughout the month, which will allow us to double the number of Blossom Bus riders to 300 beginning this April.
The story of 17 year-old Manju underscores the power of an intervention as seemingly minor as providing a ride to school. Members of a scheduled caste, Manju’s family of seven is landless and poor, and their survival depends solely on the labor of the father Vijay who paints houses in nearby villages. Though Manju faced teasing from her upper-caste classmates, her father was determined to overcome class barriers and felt strongly that keeping Manju in school would prove a catalyst for this change. The Blossom Bus identified Manju and 13 other lower-caste girls in her village as "high priority" given their vulnerability to dropping out of school, and all 14 girls are now attending grade 10 with daily bus transportation.
Manju will graduate to upper secondary school this year and is determined to finish high school--and continue on to college if possible. Manju will likely be part of the first cohort of a planned extension of the Blossom Bus project, which will begin transporting girls transitioning to high school this year. The Blossom Bus will also be expanding to the border with neighboring Rajasthan, a high-need region to which our LEARN education watchdog program recently expanded.
We offer our heartfelt thanks to you for helping Manju and her peers in their uphill battle to pursue education in a country that was recently reported as the G20’s “worst country to be a woman.” With your help 300 young women will be able to achieve the promise of education, thereby breaking the cycle of poverty for themselves, their families and the countless generations that will follow them.
To read more about this project or pledge additional support, please visit www.blossombus.org.
![Manju at her school]()
Manju at her school
![82 Blossom Bus girls attend this school]()
82 Blossom Bus girls attend this school
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Nov 28, 2012
Did you know?
By Erika Keaveney | Executive Director
![We are the Girl Effect!]()
We are the Girl Effect!
Lotus Outreach and the Blossom Bus are in the final hours of the second annual Girl Effect Challenge. Victory in this challenge would mean we could double the number of Blossom Bus girls next year to 300, bringing new hope to 150 girls that have been forced to drop out of school and are at-risk of becoming child brides.
The only way we can guarantee victory and continue our invaluable partnership with Girl Effect in 2013 is through your vote.
A donation of just $10 to the project = one vote for the Blossom Bus, and there are two simple ways to cast your vote:
Donate online at www.blossombus.org
-or-
Text "GIVE 5307" to 80088 to donate $10*
You can track our progress on the Girl Effect Challenge leaderboard here.
So far this year, 150 girls have received rides to and from school each day as a result of the tremendous outpouring of love, support and energy we received from you all in the 2011 challenge. 99% of these girls graduated to a higher grade level this spring, with many making history in their village high schools. We know you can help us cross the finish line again and enable these bright young women to continue blazing trails in their communities.
If you have already donated toward the challenge this month, thank you!!! Please continue to be a voice for these amazing girls by telling your friends, family and colleagues about this challenge via email, Twitter and Facebook. Be sure to ask them to donate $10 to cast their vote too.
The "polls" close on November 30, so be sure to cast your vote today!
Warmly,
Lotus Outreach
*Charges will appear on your wireless bill, or be deducted from your prepaid balance. All purchases must be authorized by account holder. Must be 18 years of age or have parental permission to participate. Message and Data Rates May Apply. Text STOP to 80088 to STOP. Text HELP to 80088 for HELP. Full Terms:www.mGive.org/T. Privacy Policy: goto.gg/privacy.
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Aug 21, 2012
"I never dreamed that I would go to school again"
By Erika Keaveney | Executive Director
![Sangita, with her proud grandmother]()
Sangita, with her proud grandmother
My name is Sangita and I belong to a lower-caste family in Bhanguri village. After I passed grade eight in 2011 from Aharvan School, my father and grandmother asked me to stop going to school as it was not safe to walk three kilometers through the village of upper-caste people, as they generally do not like girls from lower-caste families going to school because it challenges their supremacy. I had no option as I could not object to my parents' wishes. I felt very bad when I saw girls from upper-caste families going to private schools in buses hired by their parents.
I had to stay home for a whole academic year until one day, my friend from school told me that one NGO is providing transport to the girls from Muslim families attending Aharvan School. I had no idea how to approach that NGO and I am not Muslim too. My friends at school helped me and one day I met the representative of Lotus Outreach, who was providing transport. I was very happy to know that the NGO was going to add more girls to the bus and I requested them to add me to the list.
Lotus Outreach was going door-to-door to identify girls who were supposed to drop out after grade five, as our village has only one primary school and so the girls must drop out once they reach grade six because parents won’t let 11 and 12 year-old girls walk alone to a distant school. Lotus Outreach found 40 girls in our village who either dropped out last year or were scheduled to drop out this year after passing grade five.
I was lucky to get a seat on the Blossom Bus and was enrolled again and returned to school. My grandmother initially felt uncomfortable, but when she was informed that over 150 girls are travelling on the Blossom Bus which has been running for three years, she not only agreed but also handed out sweets to the girls on the bus! My grandmother was even happier than I was, as her sons could never study much because of non-availability of resources, but now her granddaughter can study and become a model for the lower-caste families living in the village.
I am happy to be in school, enjoy the bus ride and enjoy my studies. I hope that I can one day graduate high school and get a good job. I want to study not only for my own development, but I want to help motivate parents of all girls from lower-caste families to go to school too.
Thank you Blossom Bus!!!
![Three of 46 girls to recently return to school]()
Three of 46 girls to recently return to school
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