Proud to be a Girl
If she is educated she will do the rest with pride
““As we light path for others we naturally light our own way.””
Being born a girl in a developing country like Nepal is challenging as girls face discrimination and are held back in every step of life but at The Small World we strongly believe that if we could only provide girls an educational opportunity she will feel proud to be born a girl. On the International Day of the Girl we would like to share some amazing stories of the girls who are proud of them being born as girl.
The Small World is very happy to share some of the successful girls stories & launch our new program "I am proud to be a girl" on 11th October, The Day Of The Girl. With this new program we will be creating awareness and proving education opportunity to remote Nepal girls to bring gender equality in education and make them feel proud of being a girl.
According to World Bank, today girls’ education is a strategic development priority. Better educated women tend to be healthier, participate more in the formal labor market, earn higher incomes, have fewer children, marry at a later age, and enable better health care and education for their children, should they choose to become mothers. All these factors combined can help lift households, communities, and nations out of poverty.
Learning and Growing Together as a Family
“At the Solukhumbu Dorm girls prepare for the life they always dreamed about but never thought was possible...”
It’s family style living at the Girls’ Dorm, with each of the bedrooms shared by five of the girls. They cook together, eat together, and share with and care for each other as a close knit family.
Among these girls, you will find diverse backgrounds, languages, and religious beliefs and practices, because we select girls from many different areas rather than just a couple of areas.
We really favour this dynamic mix of backgrounds for teenage girls living together. Besides receiving a formal education, which is most important, they are learning many valuable lessons about life, such as living in harmony in a community with very diverse personal, cultural, and religious perspectives. It fosters wide-ranging dialogue, working together to solve problems, finding agreeable solutions, and tolerance and understanding of other people and their ways of living.
Here the girls study together and help each other with their homework.
The amazing sisterhood these girls share together generates a lot of happy times, and they love to dance and sing together, play volleyball, and just have fun, which all help to form strong bonds of friendship and family.
Education and New Opportunities
Our girls are from various remote regions of Nepal where there is no opportunity for higher education and little hope for their future.
Each girl that is selected for this program has to pass an Entrance Exam to qualify for college.
This program enables our girls to continue their education, which is important, because only a higher education can facilitate their getting a better job, earning respect, and giving back to their community.
Our Girls’ Education also offers computer education, which is an essential skill in today’s world, as well as familiarizing the girls with global society and technology.
The girls also grow their own vegetables in the kitchen garden, which is part of their education for future farming in their community and also ensures valuable knowledge of agriculture and nutritious foods for their families and communities.
The Spectre of Trafficking
A common occurrence in remote areas is that when parents do educate their daughters through Grade 10, they expect them to get a job and reward what they consider a sacrifice.
Since they have no education themselves, ten years seems like an enormous amount of time. However, the reality in Nepal is that just a high school education (an SLC certificate) offers little or no qualifications for the job force, and the girls are not able to find work.
Much conflict and anger results in families over this issue, especially with the mother, which causes the girls, under pressure, to marry early or, worse, succumb to the lure of traffickers to make money. In fact, girls of 16 are even more vulnerable to the dangers of trafficking for this reason.
At the Dorm, everyone is taught the realities of international trafficking, that is, its operation, how someone is lured into trafficking, examples of real life stories and what really happens, and especially how to help prevent it, such as through mass media and documentaries.
Another huge benefit is that the girls will return to their villages to educate the people, and especially girls, of the realities of trafficking.
Women’s Leadership
Our Women’s Leadership programs, which include women’s health education, is knowledge that will stay with these girls forever and which they will share to benefit their families and communities – one of the best and most ideal reasons to make an investment in girls’ education.
Because of their enthusiasm and desire to make their dreams a reality, it is easy to envision these girls becoming future leading women of their community. Role models are important, so once a month we arrange meetings with inspiring female leaders, such as female teachers, nurses, business women, police officers, social workers, etc.
Dreams to Reality for a Bright Future
We would like to give a huge thanks to all our partners, supporters, and volunteers who have been helping to make this a most renowned program, because the Solukhumbu Girls’ Dorm is the one and only, first of its kind program in the district of Solukhumbu!
In fact, since 2010,140 girls have graduated from this program. Over 25% of the girls are already gainfully employed – teaching in villages, nursing, or managing their own small business.
This project has been enormously successful and we are encouraged by that to help it grow even more and educate many more girls to bring very positive change to their lives, that of their families, their communities, and the country of Nepal!