Hope

I’ve spent a few days this week visiting different villages that Nishtha supports in a number of ways. With each site visit, and each ride I take through the countryside, I’m amazed all over again by the resilience and hope of people in the developing world.

On Monday, I was shepherded in and out of people’s homes, meeting families whose daughters are able to attend secondary school with support from Nishtha. Most homes were one-room dwellings with a bed and limited cross-ventilation. Larger homes often have a porch or side kitchen where women cook; other families simply cook outside. It is abundantly clear that these families have few material things, yet at each home I was invited to sit down and out of nowhere came fruit or juice for me to enjoy. The smaller children at each house were likely to be wearing the least amount of clothing – maybe a pair of shorts – and almost all were barefoot. The fact that their daughters can go to school means the world to these parents, who, in the spirit of parents everywhere, want their children to do and see and achieve more than they have been able.

Later in the day, I met with the girls themselves, about 50 students in the 5th – 8th grades, all wearing their blue and white school uniforms. Again, I am given a chair, while everyone else crams onto the porch to sit around me. After a little Q&A – which doesn’t go on for too long, I am told, because girls are not accustomed to being asked their opinion – I am treated to dance performances coordinated to music from a Bengali film. When given the opportunity to express themselves on their terms, these girls truly shine.

Yesterday, I met a group of girls in a village outside of Baruipur who use drama to inform their peers and the community about social issues relevant to women and girls. Before the performance, I had the chance to speak with many of the students’ mothers, a very poised and determined group of women who are clearly happy that their daughters are benefitting from a good education. Not content to simply say hello, the mothers welcomed me with flowers and a traditional greeting.

Exiting the schoolhouse, I wondered where the show would take place, and was led to a homemade stage, elevated about 4 feet off the ground. A crowd of about 40 people had gathered to watch the show. The first performers were girls doing traditional Bengali dances in lovely costumes. After a short break, the girls put on two plays – one about child marriage, and the second about relationships and respect. For an open-air theater, this was a fairly professional production, with costumes, props, and memorized scripts. It was refreshing to see these girls take such an active role in combating some of the social pressures that women and girls face here – and doing so with great energy and humor.