You may be wondering about the relevance of the photo above as a camel might strike you as quite random given the topics I usually write about. But this article is about education and you will read about how Roshan the camel is helping rural children with theirs.
The right to an education
I recently joined a panel conversation organised by philanthropic organization, Giving Women on the subject of gender equity: can educating girls make it happen?
The webinar showcased a film called The Road to Vrindavan, focusing on the uphill struggle faced by a group of young girls in India in order to receive an education. The film follows the trail of some of the girls needing to break away from their families who saw no future other than an early marriage for their daughters and regarded them as a burden and a responsibility rather than assets to their families. Or the lengths taken by families, educators and associations such as Barefoot College to ensure the children received an education.
I had not yet had the opportunity to watch the film and did so the very next day with my daughter. My daughter is 11 years old, has always lived in Europe and has parents who value the power of education. She and I were transfixed as we watched the challenges faced by the girls to get an education.
We saw children attending school at night- allowing them to get an education, whilst working or helping their families with chores during the day. At this point in the film, we even see a mother coming to interrupt her daughter at school to go work in the fields in the pitch-black darkness. We watched how a teacher’s support to her student who was being pressured into an early marriage helped bring about long-term and life-changing benefits.
My daughter possesses a level of empathy far greater than her years, watched the film in disbelief that this limited vision was a reality for so many girls in today’s world. She watched these girls of a similar age to herself and it was incomprehensive to her as to WHY a society would want to maintain such an attitude to their girls.
Meagan Fallone, a former CEO of Barefoot College was one of the webinar panelists and articulated a concept along the lines of He for She which I had never fully considered before and which was such an eye opener.
Education is but a part of the solution
Meagan emphasised that it was not a solution to educate girls alone. This was a part of the equation. Another crucial part is working towards the buy in from the families, fathers, brothers and society in order to maintain the momentum and further the normalisation of educating girls, allowing them a different future than what has gone before. To educate girls without working towards changing attitudes in their societies is a disservice to them and to long term progress. To helicopter educated girls back into their family lives without this change is to show them a glimpse of something else but without an infrastructure to support their growth and ambitions.
Life in a pandemic
The number of children out of school has risen during the Covid-19 pandemic to approximately 800 million according to UNICEF. The number of children working to support their families and never to return to school is also on the rise as per this article published in The Guardian. In this, Jo Becker, director at Human Rights Watch said, “The key driver is the economic situation that so many families are facing because they have lost jobs, they have lost income. The lockdowns in many countries have really dealt a blow.”
Unfortunately, many families now have no recourse but to stop schooling their children, forcing them to work instead and further perpetuate the cycle of poverty. A young Nepalese girl, Gita describes working at a loom from 4am until 10pm each day with only an hour’s break, in order to supplement her family’s income. Gita may be considered one of the lucky ones, in that she has returned to school. She now continues to weave in addition to attending school, working 13 hours a day at the loom- 5 hours before school and 8 hours after…
Have You Read? Girl Vs Pandemic, 2025: Our Future Prosperity Depends On These Skills And Jobs
Meet Roshan, a inventive solution
The Covid-19 pandemic is has turned everyone’s lives upside-down, disproportionately affecting people living in or close to poverty, ethnic minorities and women. Yet, there are glimpses of adaptation and hope, such as this initiative in the Pakistani region of Balochistan in the guise of a camel library. The camel library is an educational lifeline for these rural children where schools have been more closed than open during the pandemic and is the brainchild of a secondary school principal, Rahima Jalal and her federal minister sister, Zubaida Jalal. As you can imagine, a camel library brings books as well as excitement and entertainment to the rural villages being visited. A glimmer of light-heartedness amidst communities in lockdown and rising levels of poverty and distress.
“Educating girls is not about women vs men, it’s about our past vs our future”
The chance for an education is something I hope we will all be able to take for granted one day soon, regardless of gender or the economic circumstance of one’s family or pandemics. The film, Road to Vrindavan contains the following sentiment and I couldn’t express this in a better way or agree more… “Educating girls is not about women vs men, it’s about our past vs our future”. To guarantee a stronger future, we need to support the education of girls.
