Increase Girls' Access to Education in Pakistan

Chalwalian Village is situated in the district Chakwal. Agriculture is the major profession of the people in this village. Crops are cultivated twice in a year. Wheat and peanuts are the main crops of this region.  Usually all family members should be involved during the harvesting of these crops.

Peanut harvesting takes time of three months (October, November and December), during which girls education efforts suffer as they can't attend the classes. Due to girls "small" and "thin" fingers, it is preferred that the girls perform the task of searching for peanuts by digging th soil instead of boys and adults. 

There are eight girls that Girls Education International supports with their studies in the village of Chalwali. These girls decided among themselves that they will not do the peanut work during October –December and will focus on their studies instead. Missing three months of school would mean that they cannot take the exams in December necessary to pass to the next grade. 

So this season, when parents asked the girls to join in the field for peanut picking the girl refused by saying that their studies suffer and that they will not go to field. They asked to have the work equally distributed among the boys, the girls and the adults instead. 

To our delight, the parents of the girls responded positively. They also advised the girls to pay attention to their studies.

The girls expressed thankfulness to Bedari and Girls Education International that they have enabled them to express their wishes and feelings with their parents. They said that they felt empowered to express their feelings due to the support and encouragement to contiue their studeis from the organization. They are also thankful to their parents that they gave them a chance of having the education.

It is those stories filled with courage and commitment to education and positive societal change that keep our spirits high and our dedicaton to our work strong. But it is only through your support that it is possible to give those young women access to education, sense of empowerment and goal of bettering thier lives and lives of other women in the community. We thank you for that, Girls Education International supporters. 

With the permissions of the student that shared this report with us, we share her photo with you.