Changed Family Perspective After ALP

For many people, a child receiving even the most basic education is a given. But not for Gita’s* family. At thirteen years old, one would imagine a daily life where, despite poverty, she would wake up and go to school every day. But she doesn’t. Instead, she joins her parents—both daily wage laborers—to work on other people’s fields or sometimes runs a small roadside food stall to sell panipuri and fried snacks. 

For Gita’s dad, education is a luxury. It might be for other kids, but not for his children. He would often tell young Gita, 

“Schooling cannot fill our stomachs or give us land to live on.” 

You can take away opportunities and attempt to lord over a girl’s life, but you can never take away her own mind and desires. Despite her parents’ decision that education was not for her, Gita carried a quiet curiosity. In her moments of labor, she would watch other children walk to school with books in hand and imagine themselves in their position. She fantasized about what it felt like to sit in a classroom and just absorb everything else that one hadn’t known about the world until that very moment. 

When she heard about our Captivating Village Development Program for out-of-school girls, her curiosity turned into determination. She first persuaded her mother, and then, with the help of continuous counseling from the Community Educator—her father also agreed to let her join.

Now, Gita attends the learning center regularly, and just as she imagined, she glows even more when she is learning! As she caught up on her missed education, she also learns about certain life skills like micro entrepreneurship and social issues that concern girls like her, like gender-based violence, child marriage, the culture of discrimination, and more. Moreover, she is gaining exposure to digital learning tools, opening new opportunities that she and her family never imagined were possible. 

At the surface, it seems that Gita’s main win is getting a proper education. It is. However, it is often overlooked that for every child we put back into schools, a family changes its perspective regarding the importance of education for girls. Her father now sees not another pair of hands to help put food on their table, but a full person worthy of independent thinking and carving her own path with what she is educated in. 

Gita tells us,

“Now I believe learning can change my future.”

*Name changed for privacy. 

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