The second quarter of this year has been a joyful time for our Captivating Village Program (CVP) beneficiaries. Many of our girls graduated and are on to the next chapters of their lives. One of those is Ritika.
Ritika grew up in a simple family in Bijauna. Like most village girls that we support, her parents sustain their daily livelihood through farming. This alone is not enough, and meeting all their needs has been challenging, especially with four children.
Ritika is also a victim of child marriage. When she was just 15 and in eighth grade, she got married. At that time, protesting against it was not an option because it seemed like the norm. To her, there was no concept of a “child bride”, only a “bride”. It was also a way to ease her parents’ financial burdens.
Like a blessing in disguise, her husband complained of her physical and mental immaturity and asked her to go back to her family. She felt embarrassed to go back to school because of how her classmates and society viewed her. She felt impure unlike her peers, and somehow she felt stuck between being a child and a grown woman because of her experiences. She felt discouraged and dropped out for a year. She may have given up, but the people around her had not. With the combined effort of her family, friends, and our staff—she completed grades 9 and 10!
She did not end there, we also assisted her in pursuing grades 11 and 12. While we were at it, we made sure she truly understood the concept of child marriage, its consequences, and how to prevent it. Her parents were also educated about the importance of keeping girls in school so that her younger siblings would not be married off like her. Now that Ritika knows the risks of it, she can now educate other village girls and empower them.
Ritika and her family are very grateful for the support and expressed their gratitude to our organization, our partners, and donors. She credits us for enabling her to complete grades 11 and 12. Now that she has graduated 12th grade, she is currently studying the Japanese language for more employment opportunities.
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