Let me tell you more of this girl's story. For some mysterious reason she stopped going to school in the village and started working in her father's tailor shop.
This lasted for three years. She didn't go to school for three years.
Once her father's work dried up, the whole family shifted to the big city in search of work. They crossed our paths, and we started training her mother in our sewing work. The girl continued to work with her father.
As we spent more time with her, we saw how bright, how hard-working, how down-right brilliant she was. I said to my husband,"This girl needs to be in school. She HAS to go to school".
The squeaky wheel gets the oil, right? So we were that squeaky wheel in this family's life. Send her to school. She has to go to school. Actually ALL your kids need to go to school. And after a year her family sent her AND all her younger sisters to school.
Her mother can't read or write, has never spent one day in school. She's paying it forward by sending her daughters to school. She wants them to have a better life, and she knows that education has something to do with that. Her mother is being empowered to create the world she wants to live in, not only for herself but for her daughters too.
A world where Mom feels proud of a good day's work.
A world where children get to eat fruit and good food. Daily.
A world where girls can read books, pass exams, and dream.
How can we not feel awesome about that?
Photo credit: Brady Black
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