A Social Endeavor

STORY OF FOUR SIBLINGS: THE DAUGHTERS WITHOUT A FATHER

I N T R O D U C T I O N

Having more than one girl child is taboo in certain societies. Having a male child in the home is believed to be a highly prestigious reward for the family.

T H E  D A U G H T E R S  W I T H O U T  A  F A T H E R

Yashoda Foundation started the community learning program in 2014. During our survey in the community, we came across many children and families who have been struggling to get a quality education in the government school system, which is highly impossible. We are trying our best, through the support of our friends and well-wishers, to provide quality education for these children who deserve a brighter future.

This is a story about four daughters who were born in the midst of such taboo and struggle. Sada, Giri, Durga, Rathna lost their father. Nagaraj was working for an advocate as a typist. He was involved in an auto accident while returning home and died on the spot. After her husband's sudden demise, the Padma, the mother of these beautiful four girls, was left with nothing but helplessness. She had never gone to school, nor did she have any specific skills, but now she was left alone to face the world for her four girls, including her old mother-in-law.

She knew the struggles that she faced, so at any cost, she wanted a better life for her girls. In the run to fulfill their basic needs and support their dreams, and to continue her life without a husband with four daughters, she started to work as a housekeeping employee in a private hospital. But she received $56 a month, and that couldn't even cover their basic needs. After she heard about our ongoing survey and the community learning centers, she approached us for support, and that was the time we got to know about these beautiful girls who are unique in their own way. They are young, but the maturity they have is beyond one can imagine; they are hard-working and brilliant in their education and are born with impressive talents. They score straight A's in all school courses and are equally self-motivated in all extra-curricular activities.

GIRLS LIVING IN POOR COMMUNITIES STILL FACE THE SOCIETY TABOO

How much more difficult will it be for the mother and the daughters to contend with life's forces, without the husband and the father they all need the most at the moment? We know that we can't return their father to them, but one thing for sure we can all do is to help them fulfill their dreams and support them by giving them quality education to help them shape their careers.

This is just one story among the many stories we have in our community intervention. As a social organization, we can't meet all the needs of many girls and children like Sada, Giri, Durga, and Rathna without the support of well-wishers and friends from around the world.

To date, our intervention in community learning centers is remedial education. But after seeing the results and the challenges we received from the children and families in our community centers, we are looking forward to starting more facilities. These will be quality foundations that will give them options to choose the profession they are inclined toward.

We are sure that with our combined effort, tomorrow, these beautiful daughters will not hesitate to face the world. But most importantly, they will not have to go through the phase of such uncomfortable social taboos.

SOCIOECONOMIC BACKGROUND: Most of the parents are daily wage workers. Some of them hardly make $14 in a month. Few parents make a maximum of $60 in a month. With such unstable socioeconomic background, it is difficult to meet the basic needs of their children, not to speak of fulfilling dreams such as becoming a doctor, engineer, etc., about which can be said that "It is easier for a camel to pass through the needle's eye."

Many of the parents of our community children never knew if their children went to school regularly, nor did they believe they had a significant role in their children's education.

Often, they believed that the children's welfare is the teacher's responsibility. Some parents even feel that educating their children is a blunder as they would not be helping them in their daily chores.

OUR INTERVENTION: At present, we are running four community learning centers, and at each center, we have 80-90 children on a regular basis. Altogether, we have about 330 children, of which 90% are girls who benefit from our community education program.

To make impossible dreams a possibility, today, we work not only with children, but also organize regular parent meetings to update them about their children's growth and reiterate the importance of their involvement.

OUR GOALS FOR 2019:

1. Initiating 20 more community learning centers
2. Computer training
3. Vocational training 
4. Science Lab

www.yashodafoundation.org