Safeena Husain is the founder and Executive Director
at Educate Girls – a non-profit organization that aims at tackling issues at
the root cause of gender inequality in India’s education system.
After graduating from the London School of Economics,
Safeena wanted to do something meaningful and impactful. She found herself
drawn to the social development sector, working extensively with both rural and
urban underserved communities around the
world. After 15 years of experience working with grassroots projects in Ecuador,
Mexico, Bolivia and South Africa, Safeena returned to India to drive the agenda
closest to her heart – girls’ education.
With practical, first-hand experience in working with
communities and understanding how educating women can impact some of the most
pressing root cause of poverty, particularly health and employment, Safeena
together with a local team conducted a 50-school project in Pali district,
Rajasthan. This was launched under the umbrella of the Rajasthan Education
Initiative and following its successful test phase, Safeena established Educate
Girls as an NGO in 2007. A year later, the organization won government approval
to start a pilot project in 500 school in Pali disctrict. Safeena has steered
the growth of Educate Girls, scaling the organization from 50 school to over
8,000 schools across 4,500 villages, serving over a million children.
Safeena’s dedication to the cause of girls’ education
and her tireless efforts to reach an ever growing number of communities
throughout India is pivotal in Educate Girls’ success. Aside from occupying the
Executive Director’s seat at the organization, she perseveres to increase
awareness about gender equity and girls’ education by speaking at international
forums.
Safeena’s efforts to bridge the gender gap in education
in India have been widely recognized. Under her leadership, Educate Girls has
received the 2014’s WISE Awards, the 2014 USAID Millennium Alliance Award and
the 2014 Stars Impact Awards and the India Development marketplace Award in
2011 from the World Bank. Moreover, in 2013 she received the British Asian
Trust’s Special Recognition Award from HRH Prince Charles for outstanding
contribution in education.
Seema is a 16 year old girl from Pali,
Rajasthan. She lost her father at the age of 11, a tragedy that people in her
village blamed her for, saying she was cursed. Seema was miserable. To add to
her despair, she was married off to an abusive alcoholic who was twice her
age. Eventually, he threw her out onto the street. Seema’s situation, though
heart-breaking, is not unique. 68% of girls in Rajasthan are married before
the legal age of 18. These girls often drop out of school and begin to work
in homes where they are susceptible to abuse, adolescent pregnancy and often
have no decision making power. 9 out of 26 “gender gap” districts in India
are in Rajasthan, where 40% of girls drop out of school before they reach 5th
grade.
Seema was alone, living on the street when our Team
Balika member, Sharda, found her. Our Team Balika are the champions of our
cause with over 1500 volunteers working towards rejuvenating government
schools and improving learning outcomes. Sharda counseled Seema to help her
learn to face her struggles with confidence. With Sharda’s help, Seema gained
the courage to re-enroll in school, where, after studying for two years, she
passed her 10th grade exams with flying colors. Today, Seema herself is a
proud member of Team Balika. She works with Sharda to enroll out-of-school
girls, support school teachers, and conduct life skills education
sessions. Seema’s ability to overcome her situation is an inspiration.
Our Team Balika members are crucial elements of the
Educate Girls model. They go door to door to convince families to prioritize
girls’ education. They mobilize communities to form School Management
Committees, giving community members a platform to assess schools and
influence the local education system. Furthermore, Team Balika helps to
increase learning outcomes by working directly with teachers and headmasters
to introduce creative learning techniques in classrooms. Their efforts on the
ground are not only essential to our success as an organization, but create
lasting impact on the lives of people in the communities they serve.
Through the efforts of Team Balika, Educate Girls
has enrolled over 59,000 girls. Our goal is to improve access and quality of
education for around 4 million children living in underserved communities in
India by 2018.
I am Navli Kumari
from Abu Road Block in Sirohi district, Rajasthan. I was fortunate to have been
able to live with my father in Abu Road, a relatively developed area that
facilitated my studies. Sadly, after my father passed away, I had to move back
to my native village which is an ‘Adivasi’ area where girls do not have
any access to education. In fact, there wasn’t a single school there. I was the
only girl in the village who had studied till the 12th grade. It was
very disheartening for me to see that most girls were deprived of even primary
education. Seeing them, I often wondered how I could use my education for the
betterment of my community but saw no existing avenue. I desperately wanted to
see a school building in my village.
One day, an Educate
Girls Field Coordinator came looking for me. He mentioned that he was in search
of an educated person in my village who could volunteer to bring back girls to
school and handhold them through their learning process. He told me that I
would fit the role perfectly and then gave me deeper insight into the
organization and its interventions – this was my first formal introduction to
Educate Girls.
I was highly
motivated by Educate Girls’ methodology, but I realized that this was a
challenging proposition. Educate Girls’ model is based on partnership with the
government and revolves around a core element – Team Balika or community youth
leaders who volunteer with the organisation. I chose to become a Team Balika
because I genuinely wanted to make a difference in my village. When I first
went door-to-door trying to convince parents to send their daughters to school,
many doors were slammed in my face and many abuses were hurled at me. But I
knew I had to be patient and persistent. Gradually parents allowed their
daughters to step out in uniform. I have been a Team Balika for 4 years now and
take pride in saying that with help from Educate Girls I have enrolled 46 girls
in school and stopped 2 child marriages. After many years of unsuccessful
attempts, a school has finally been set-up in my village. The support and
creative training offered by Educate Girls has achieved dual purpose in my
life. Not only has there been an increase in the confidence & learning
levels of the girls who are being enrolled, I too have been empowered. I’ve
been trained in essential skills and taught a solution-finding and constructive
approach to dealing with every situation. From a place where achieving my dreams
seemed impossible, to where I am today – contesting as a candidate in the local
elections and being viewed as a leader with potential –Educate Girls has been
the wind in my sails.
