Gender Equality India Project #23869

Educate Destitute Girls in Kolkata, India

by Tiljala Society for Human and Educational Development

Project Report | Mar 10, 2020
"My first priority is my parents"

By Jane Manson | Fundraising

Shabnam

On the face of it, Shabnam’s circumstances sound as bad as anyone’s. She lives in the Darapara slum sharing 2 small rooms (80 sq ft) with 10 other family members. Her father was an embroiderer but has almost lost his sight and cannot work anymore. Her mother is a maidservant, earning just Rs2000 (£20) per month. Her brother is a salesman bringing in Rs 6000 (£60) per month. He himself has two severely disabled children. The family is originally from Bihar and are respectable, my colleagues tell me: they would rather starve than beg. But on this tiny income of just about £80 a month they regularly face starvation. Thanks to Tiljala SHED’s emergency food programme, the whole family receives rations occasionally.

Meeting Shabnam in the Tiljala SHED office recently, I would never have guessed what terrible hardship she suffers. For Shabnam, defying the odds, is at college and studying to become a lawyer.

“My first priority is my family” she told me. “The first thing I’ll do when I start earning is release my mother from her job”. She said, “I’ll give all the happiness to my mother and father because they deserve it”.

Thanks to the generosity of Bhawanipore College where she has a scholarship, to a private benefactor and to extra tuition and lots of moral support from staff at Tiljala SHED, Shabnam is getting close to realising her dream. She passes all her exams with flying colours.

It is the combination of Shabnam’s drive and ambition and the external support she gets from Tiljala SHED and donors like you, that leads to success. As a qualified lawyer, Shabnam will change many more lives.

Please consider a generous donation to this excellent project so that we can empower more women and girls like Shabnam.

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Dec 17, 2019
Zeenat is studying Law at University

By Jane Manson | Fundraising

Zeenat

Zeenat was one of the first girls enrolled in this project in 2016. She was living in a tiny single room in the slum with her mother and younger brother. Her parents are divorced so her mother, a saleswoman, supports her family on just £30 (or $40) a month.

Many girls in Zeenat’s position would have found themselves married off in their early teens, practically illiterate, poor and destined to a life of drudgery and childbearing. But Zeenat and her mother clearly had different ideas. Zeenat, against the odds, remained in school. We met her when she was in class XII and about to leave school. She very much wanted to go on to university but needed the financial support to do so. 3 years on she is studying Law at Calcutta University. She is doing well, having passed every semester and wants to become a barrister.

Zeenat is unusual in her ambition and imagination and we were very happy to take her on. Thanks to your generosity Zeenat has every chance of changing her destiny and perhaps changing many lives for the better through her career. It is rare for girls from this kind of background to step out of the slum in this way and we are so proud of her.

Your donations cover the cost of fees, books, stationery, travel, nutritional supplements, medical aid and other incidentals. It makes the difference between continuing her education or abandoning her dreams.

Thank you for making this possible.

A note: You will have heard from Global Giving that there is a problem disbursing your donations to the project. This is beause all Global Giving's disbursements to Indian projects have been held up at government level. I am working on a solution which will unblock the funds and get your donations safely where they need to go. Meanwhile, the project is moving forward as we always aim to keep a modest cushion of funds for just this eventuality.

Thank you for your patience.

Zeenat's 5th semester results

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Sep 23, 2019
Zainab's Expanding Horizons

By Jane Manson | Fundraising

Zainab

Zainab was one of the first girls to be sponsored under this programme back in 2016. She’s from a desperately poor family, living in a single room and surviving on her father’s tiny salary of Rs4000 (about £45) a month. Zainab is a hard-working student and loves knowing that she has a sponsor, Jean, who lives far away in England.

Jean’s generosity provides Zainab everything she needs to ensure she can benefit best from her education: uniform, shoes, a school bag, books, stationery, the cost of travel, extra tuition, nutritional supplements and so on.

But being a sponsored girl means so much more than that. Zainab is also a member of the Gyan Azhar library, a girls-only facility where she can study, borrow books and use the computers. There are also frequent invitations to the library for opportunities to learn beyond the school curriculum. This summer there have been awareness sessions covering good nutrition, personal health and hygiene. They learned how to spot and how to prevent tuberculosis. They had a session on menstrual hygiene. On Earth Day, the girls learned about environmental issues discussing the problems of plastic waste: they had a go at making their own paper bags out of newspaper. Young volunteers from local schools organised a drawing competition, dance, singing and fashion events for our girls.

So, for Zainab, being part of the sponsorship programme is more than the school kit and other educational expenses: it is also about widening her horizons, expanding her understanding of how to stay healthy, enjoying new cultural experiences and meeting other young people from around the city. Zainab can aspire to life beyond the tiny room in the slum, a life beyond illiteracy, drudgery and child-bearing.

Thank you for giving Zainab and all the other girls a vision and hope of a better future.

A healthy body

We made paper bags!

Ayesha receives basic computer course certificate

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