Education India Project #49220

Educate Her Empower Her

by iPartner India

Project Report | Apr 18, 2022
Educate Her Empower Her

By Sumedha Sharma | Project Leader

Dear Global Givers,

We are happy to present an update from our campaign Educate Her Empower Her, a campaign that supports girls’ education. Your support has been crucial in paying the admission cost, boarding and lodging, tuition fee, books, and stationery-related expenses for the ten girls. We started with six girls and today we are extremely proud that ten girls are proving to their community that given a chance, anyone can pursue their dreams. All the girls have been promoted to the next class at the beginning of the new academic session, April 2022-March 2023.

The girls are excited as offline classes have finally begun and they will be meeting their online friends for the first time in the school. The girls were surprised to see the size of the campus as have ventured out of their homes for the first time. For many of the girls, they are the first generation to study away from their homes and live in a boarding. Having studied most of their life in a non-English speaking school, the girls are eager to learn English. In addition, the girls will also be provided additional support to learn computers and attend spoken English classes. They will also receive career counselling from time to time to help them decide on their future. The girls have also enrolled for yoga, gym and horse-riding classes at the campus and have been receiving emotional support from their classmates, warden and teachers to adjust to the new environment.

Meet Rita (name changed) who is studying in 11th grade. Rita’s mother is a retired sex worker because of which their household income has decreased significantly during the pandemic. Her father does not work and stays at home most of the time. After the pandemic, the family has to face reduced expenditure on health, education, and food. Rita was extremely vulnerable to trafficking, therefore, your timely support has helped her to continue with her education. Rita needs our support to fulfil her dream of becoming a teacher.

Your support is crucial as girls in India continue to remain vulnerable and face the risk of being never sent to school. It is estimated that nearly 10 million secondary school girls in India could drop out of school due to the pandemic, putting them at risk of early marriage, early pregnancy, poverty, and violence.

Children in countries such as India are also caught in a vicious cycle of risk: they face greater risks of being forced into child labour, and adolescent girls are especially at risk of gender-based violence, child marriage, and teenage pregnancy, which increases the longer they are out of school. The same risks directly impact their ability to return to school at all. Combined with the sharp decrease in education spending, the COVID-19 outbreak could be a cruel blow for millions of children and girls are likely to be much worse affected than boys, with many forced into early marriage. The ideal preventive measure to save girls from the non-health effects of the pandemic is to continue investing in their education.

iPartner India stands committed to ensuring that no girl on our watch is forced to drop out of school. Through Educate Her Empower Her campaign, we will continue to support existing vulnerable girls' education and aim to enrol 15 additional girls by the end of the current academic session.

Thank you, Global Givers for your sustained support to empower girls in India.

With deep gratitude,
Team iPartner India

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Dec 20, 2021
Educate Her Empower Her

By Sumedha Sharma | Project Leader

Meena (Name changed to protect identity)

Dear Global Givers,

As the year comes to an end, we hope that you are all doing well and keeping safe. This year has been a great challenge as we continued to witness the surge of COVID-19 and many lives devastated by the pandemic. With educational institutions remaining shut for most of the year, this has impacted many young people on their mental and physical well-being. Our team on the ground has been vigilant and constantly engaged with the girls to provide any support they may require.

We are happy to report that all six girls supported by you are doing fine and coping well with their online classes. We have also shortlisted another four girls to support and enrol into the school as they have been facing challenges to continue their education and post the second wave of the pandemic, the pressure on these girls has increased to support their families from earning through sex work. The six enrolled girls have been attending regular online classes and have even completed their unit tests in the current academic year. They have all performed well. They may be able to physically attend classes by January 2021. The scholars are determined to do extremely well in their exams and are looking forward to offline classes so that they can meet their classmates in person. Not having access to mobile phones was a major challenge for them as they couldn't attend online classes regularly however support was provided to them to purchase phones and mobile data. This was supplemented with tuition classes which continue to date. Some scholars are also attending a python course to build their technical skills. This will further aid in their future careers. For iPartner India, it is a massive milestone. It took the team numerous meetings and sessions to convince the families to let their daughters continue with their education.

Your support saved these minor girls from forced sex work and ensured that these girls remained in school to continue with their education. Many girls in India dropped out of school as parents lost their livelihood and could not afford digital devices to let their children continue with online classes. These girls are a beacon of hope in their villages and are inspiring other girls to pursue education. We are hopeful that they become role models for the other girls and take a stand to break free from inter-generational sex work.

Here is a story of courage and hope.

Meet Meena*, a grade 10 student and one of the girls supported by you. She lost her mother, a former sex worker to HIV when she was young. Her mother’s death traumatized her as her mother was her only source of inspiration and the only one in her family who pushed for her education. She has four siblings, two sisters, and two brothers. Her elder sister was keen to pursue her education but by age 14, she was sent for commercial sex work. Her elder brother has been struggling with drug abuse and is dependent on his sisters. Meena’s eldest sister is the only earning member in her family. The sister lives in Mumbai and used to send the younger siblings money to run the household. Meena and her siblings live with her aunt. Initially, Meena’s family was not keen on allowing her to pursue her education, but after numerous discussions, her family finally agreed to allow her to study. In 2021, her sister stopped sending money to her siblings as she wasn’t making enough due to the pandemic. Currently, there is immense pressure on Meena to take up commercial sex work to support her family. Her family members have been supported with livelihood based interventions and are a part of the various groups under Rakshan. Meena started her journey as a Rakshan scholar in 2020 where she joined in grade 9. She passed her annual exams for grade 9 with first division (539 marks out of 800). Meena was provided with a mobile phone to help her attend online classes. She wishes to go to the hostel to continue with her studies as she feels that the environment in her village is not very encouraging. In her recent unit test, she scored 57 out of a total of 80 marks. She has improved her performance in Math, Social Science, English, and Sanskrit. She has been inspiring other girls in her village to continue with their education. She even organises small group meetings for interested girls and provides them with guidance and support. The team has also observed that she has become more confident and is determined to change her future.

“I want to become a police officer and would like to work to end violence against women from my community. I never thought that girls like me could ever study in a premier institute, especially after the death of my mother. This is just the beginning of my journey” – Meena

Thank you, Global Givers, we wish you all a very Happy Holidays and we look forward to your continued support in the coming years.

With deep gratitude,

Team iPartner India

*Name changed to protect the identity of the girl.

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Aug 24, 2021
Educate Her Empower Her

By Sumedha Sharma | Project Leader

Dear Global Givers,

We are delighted to present a progress report on the update of the scholars who are being supported through iPartner India’s Educate Her Empower Her campaign. All six girls have been promoted to the next class. One of the girls is pursuing her second year in Bachelors in Arts, another in 12th grade, and the rest are in 10th grade. We are thrilled that all six girls have secured first class and scored distinction in some of the subjects during their final exams. Your contribution is making it possible for us to support these girls and create a safe environment where some degree of virtual learning and other social activities will help them to have a better future.

These girls are role models in their communities and inspiring other girls to continue with their education. The girls have also taken a huge step by venturing outside their villages for the first time to pursue their education. They now have dreams and aspirations to become teachers, doctors and lawyers. This would not have been possible without your support.

In Rajasthan, schools and colleges have been closed for the most part of the year due to the pandemic. Online classes remain to be a challenge as most of them do not have easy access to digital devices and are dependent on their parent’s mobile phones. Through your support, we have been able to ensure that the girls have access to not only phones but also mobile data. The girls found it extremely challenging to attend virtual classes and adapt to the new style of pedagogy initially but with time they have been able to adjust to the situation. Despite the many challenges due to the pandemic, we are happy that the girls are doing well and securing high marks in their exams. In fact, one of the girls scored an outstanding 89 percent in her final year exams.

The socio- economic repercussions of the pandemic indicated that many children would be pulled out of school this year. Keeping this in mind, tuition classes for Math, Science and English have been initiated for all the scholars. The tutors are helping the scholars prepare for their exams and complete their curriculum. Regular counselling sessions are also being held with the parents so as to ensure that the children remain in school and continue with their education. The field team has been following up with the scholars on a daily basis as well.

The second wave of COVID-19 has left the country devastated. Lockdowns and curfews were imposed in different states across India including Rajasthan. While this is a necessary measure and has led to a slight decline in the positivity rate, it has also left the children, especially young girls, at risk as they remain at home with 90% of them being unable to continue with education due to lack of resources. Thousands of girls are now at risk of being trafficked or pulled out from school. We need your support now more than ever.

Thank you for believing in the work we do, we look forward to your continued support to enrol additional girls and to help the existing girls continue their studies in the next year.

With deep gratitude,
Team iPartner India

*Images used in the report are for representation only to maintain the privacy of the actual girls' beneficiaries.

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