"You care about us when no-one else does"
Worldwide, 14 million girls are married as child-brides each year. That is 38,000 young girls every day. Research shows that if girls receive a formal education, the rate of childhood marriages falls by 64%.
Your support is enabling our project workers and teachers in Central Asia to work with entire communities in remote mountainous villages, where child marriage is common, advocating for and promoting the education of girls. Here is what some of the people involved in the schools have to say:
School chairman: "We saw some girls wandering around outside and thought, ‘Why aren’t they coming to school?’ The problem is that some of the old people still have closed minds. They say it is not good to educate girls. We have only recently started this work. Until we are educated, our problems will not go away, so we are going to keep bringing the girls. We have begun telling people that their children will get free books and supplies to attend school, maybe even up to middle school here and that getting an education will be easy!”
Parent of a school student shared: "Many changes have happened in our lives. It is different because we are very poor people. We couldn’t afford the fee of $5 to send our children to school. I only studied until fifth grade, and then there was no teacher for higher levels, and no money to travel to another school. We were poor, so I stayed at home. Because of education, we are very thankful. Those who brought education have given us free pencils, textbooks, notebooks, and uniforms. It was all free. The school is completely full and you brought teachers. Now there are so many girls studying! What is the reason they are studying? It’s because of the care that people have given. We are very thankful. You care about us when no-one else does. No-one else comes here. No-one else is working here.”
School principal shared, “Many changes have happened. Many government teachers just pass the time. But by the grace of God, the teachers who have been posted here are working hard, coming on time, and doing their best for the children. And then two female teachers joined us and they are also doing a great job. Because of this, we have seen many changes in the students. However, there is still the problem that parents here are illiterate. When the children go home and open their books, the parents can’t help them to understand. So, we are doing our best to teach very strong basics to the children up to class three. We are also helping the older students who have some weak areas as well. Since I have been here, from the time I came until now, I feel that there are many changes.”