Swabhiman - Help a girl who dropped out in 8th grade pass the 10th grade exam

Dreams are made up of what we know of reality and what we hope to have in fantasy. It is also true that there is rarely a dream that we can achieve all by ourselves-especially if they are seemingly impossible ones. Such is the case of Shanti, a 17 year old who wished to change her life and the lives of those around her by acquiring an education. Fate and tradition in the austere rural home where she grew up decreed otherwise and Shanti had to leave school to follow the family custom of an early marriage. Despite the fact that she was only in the 8^th grade her family had decided to cut short her education to give her into matrimony.  Shanti’s dreams of a life of freedom and achievement seemed destined for a silent death in the oppressive folds of social sanction.

A research conducted by Milaan in Aug 2010 states that the dropout percentage among girls after class VIII is as high as 96.7% in the target area. It also indicates that the social impact of the same on their growth cycle which leads to early marriages, domestic work, etc paralyzing them to even explore government’s various skilled employment programs.

We wish to initiate Swabhiman - 30 months program aiming at providing informal education to 30 VIII class dropout girls to clear class X and empower them to lead a life of dignity.  It is an integrated program defined considering the academic, vocational and personality development enhancement as core approaches.

You can support a girl child for INR 6000 or $150 annually. Please share a slice of your resources and help a girls to lead a life of dignity ,creating bright future for her and her family.

And they performed for the world to describe their dream !!

When Saloni, a girl from our Swarachna Learning and Resource Center - a rural informal education center in Uttar Pardesh told her father that she will be performing at an annual concert at Lucknow , the reply was "NO - our daughters don't dance". It took the teachers more than a week to convince her father to allow  and also invited him for the function. After the performance , he hugged his daughter and said " I am proud of you".

There are hundreds of Saloni's struggling for exploring their dreams. Life has never been easy for them and we wish to be the catalyst in bring out that change in their lives through education, vocational skills and continuous like skills training program.

On 9th Dec 2011, 23 children including 12 girls performed on "Vande Mataram" flagging their thoughts and journey towards freedom  for an unrestricted sky with open wings and clear vision. This was the first ever performance of our children for the open public and also an opportunity for many to see the world outside of their village.

I am thankful to Mrs. Balvinder Singh for helping us to make this happen.