What is the best way to support a girl child’s education?
30% of girls from the economically disadvantaged groups have never set foot inside a classroom. In many communities of India, girl children are considered a burden. Families are set on marrying them off at an early age, sometimes before they turn 18. All because of the dowry demands placed by the groom’s family. Although illegal, the act of giving and taking dowry is still widely practiced. Thefore, families do not see the need to educate a girl child.
World Vision India empowers, educates girls and women, and helps them break-free from poverty and the societal boundaries. When you sponsor a child through World Vision India, you help children renew their hopes and dreams.
Donate for a child’s education and see the difference you bring.
25-year-old Priyanka works as a nurse at Allahabad but she was born and raised in Lalitpur, Uttar Pradesh. Once in few months, she takes an overnight train and then sits on a local bus for a couple of hours through a bumpy road to reach her village.
Life in the village was difficult and without any prospect especially for girls like Priyanka. There was just one Upper Primary School (up to 8th standard) in the village of 146 households. Unable to move to bigger town or commute daily to school, most children dropped out of school after 8th standard and began working fulltime in the fields. But a bigger issue loomed over the village: one born of tradition, beliefs, superstitions and taboos.
Before World Vision India’s intervention in 1999, children were victims of child marriage. Priyanka’s elder sister was married off when she was 15 years old and Priyanka was to follow suit. But Priyanka became World Vision India’s sponsor child when she was 8 years old, and that changed everything for her.
After completing her 12th standard, Priyanka wanted to attend college, but her parents wanted different things for her. College was a taboo, no parents wanted to talk about. “The more educated a girl is the more difficult it is for her to get a groom. The dowry is much higher for educated grooms,” said Priyanka’s father Ratan Singh.
World Vision India’s staff talked to her parents and convinced them to send Priyanka for an Auxiliary Nursing Midwife (ANM) course. World Vision India paid all her tuition fees. Priyanka now works as a nurse in a Community Health Centre (CHC) at Manda Block in Allahabad.
Priyanka is first girl from the village to attend college and the first nurse and female government employee from her village.
Children in the village are drawing inspiration from Priyanka’s success. “If not for World Vision India, I would have married by now and become a mother of five children. I would be labouring in the paddy field like my parents,” said Priyanka. Her imagination is not far-fetched. She would have ended a child bride but instead she is an independent woman and takes care of her sibling’s financial needs.
When you sponsor a child through World Vision India, you have the opportunity to educate a girl child and change the destiny of the child. Sponsor now and donate for a child’s education.
