Building Futures for Young Women
Girls from the village where today's story takes place
Often in India, particularly in small rural villages, a girl’s education is not highly valued. Many poor parents marry off their daughters at an early age so someone else can have the responsibility of feeding them. In the village of Amaravadi, where today’s story comes from, many girls used to get married as young as 12. One girl we met in 2019 (see below) was pregnant with her third child at only 16. By the grace of God, since opening the evening school in Amaravadi, the average age of marriage has started to increase.
Two teenage sisters, Gobiga and Kipida, came from a poor family. They didn’t have many friends because the higher caste children at their school snubbed them and made them feel inferior. Both sisters decided they could no longer handle the bullying and dropped out.
Soon after, COVID-19 hit India and almost the whole country was locked down. The girls and their family were forced to move to a new village. Gobiga and Kipida’s parents, unlike many others, were sad to see their daughters quit school, so when they moved and found out about the evening school in the village, they excitedly talked to the teacher. The teacher told them the girls were welcome to join.
Gobiga and Kipida resumed their regular studies at home, due to the lockdown, and in the evenings the teacher helped them answer any questions that popped up during the day. Even though the lockdown caused hardships for their family, Gobiga and Kipida stayed healthy and strong because of the good food from the evening school.
Ranjetha, pictured on the right, is another girl who, through the evening school in Amaravadi, has been able to continue her education past the age of 12.
Gobiga and Kipida continued to study hard, and they both passed their final exams online. Their parents are so proud of them and are happy they still have the opportunity to learn.
Praise God for giving these sisters this amazing opportunity to build a future for themselves. Please pray that as they continue to learn about Jesus in the evening school that they and their family will come to accept Him as their personal Savior.
The tutoring and food our evening schools provide is given to the children free of charge. However, it costs $7 per child per month to cover the school expenses. (This covers all the costs of the school, including the teachers, cook, food and fuel. We take nothing for administrative expenses in the home office besides bank transfer fees.) If you would like help enable more kids like Gobiga and Kipida to receive this opportunity for education, food, and spiritual learning, please click the button below.