The Blossom Bus: Help Rural Girls Get To School!

We are happy to announce that eight Blossom Bus girls have enrolled in masters degree programs after graduating from Blossom Bus to college this year. Genevieve, a Lotus Outreach International representative from the US, visited Durgapur village in Palwal district on July 30^th 2017. Once she arrived, she met these girls and interacted with them. Genevieve’s first reaction after the meeting with the girls was “Wow! They’re really bright!”.  My answer was that they are brave too as they have achieved this difficult position by fighting the mindset of the society all the while being discouraged by their own extended family!

Usha, a Blossom Bus girl from Durgapur, told us even her uncle was not happy about her enrolling in college. His reason being that his own daughter wasn’t able to go to college, so he didn’t approve of Usha attending college either. All of these girls have challenged this kind of gender discrimination and have been able to challenge this mindset.

We’ve now reached a landmark in the Blossom Bus service. After starting with 46 girls in 2010, we have now provided the service to 688 unique girls by 2017. Up to this year, 366 girls have completed their education and graduated. While it is certain not all of those girls got jobs and professions, we can say with confidence these 688 girls have shown their families, siblings (especially girls) that girls have tremendous capacity, and can complete high school and college and do whatever a boy can do. A whole generation of girls and young women in this area and across the entire State of Haryana has been inspired by the achievements of these Blossom Bus riders. The government has featured them and the service as a way forward in terms of social development and in terms of ways to provide educational rights to the underserved while younger siblings have taken up the baton and used their sister as an example to get family approval to remain in and leverage their right, to attend school.

White-collar employment in rural areas remains a challenge, even so, we believe education is not for employment or a job alone; education produces better citizens. Whatever the case, many of the graduates, especially those finishing college will find gainful employment and professions they can ply in the nearby towns. The rest of the students will continue to contribute to the education of their own families and towards building better communities. We now have 40 young women on the Blossom to College Bus and 8 of them are now pursuing a Masters Degree.

Thank you to all of the donors who have supported these driven young women!