By Glenn Fawcett | Executive Director, Lotus Outreach
The Blossom Bus program has continued to run smoothly from October to December 31. We are delighted to report that during this quarter the program has again been able to overcome safety issues, gender biases, inclement weather, seasonal responsibilities on the farm and sibling care, to ensure full school attendance rates for 681 girls from 37 villages attending seven high schools, including 40 attending colleges.
Even while education department and school authorities continue to applaud this initiative, during this academic year there has been no further provision of affordable public or private transportation available to ensure girls from these villages might reach school safely. Provision of these buses is therefore crucial to the continuing education of the hundreds of girls served by the program.
While the numbers plying on the buses have remained the same for the program during the quarter, the demand for seats on buses among the village communities where the program operates has continued to grow. We are keeping a list of applicants and hope to add 300 new applicants to the current riders before the end of this current academic year on March 31, 2020.
Every girl that remains in school another year not only becomes an inspiration and role model for her sisters and all the girl children of the villages in which this program is working, she is also adding to the development of her community for now and generations to come.
Nobel laureate and girls’ education activist, Malala Yousafzai, famously said, “One child, one teacher, one book, and one pen, can change the world.” An enormous body of evidence supports her conviction. For starters, educated girls realize higher wages and greater upward mobility, contributing to economic growth. Their rates of maternal mortality drop, as do mortality rates of their babies. They are less likely to marry as children or against their will. They have lower incidence of HIV/AIDS and malaria—the “social vaccine” effect. Their agricultural plots are more productive and their families better nourished. They are more empowered at home, at work, and in society.*
Teachers, principals and education department officers in our work area continuously remind us how inspired they are by our efforts and that by enabling regular attendance of large numbers of girl students at local high schools, the Blossom Bus program is keeping their schools open. This contribution to the overall vibrancy of education in the community is a testament to the deeper impacts of this program on a society at large.
*Paul Hawken, Drawdown (2017)
Links:
By Suraj Kumar | Project Manager, India
By Glenn Fawcett | Executive Director, Lotus Outreach
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