"She symbolizes life, she is life and she brings life." This is what Clare Padenga said when asked why she worked so hard to depict what she truly believed her mother deserved on her special day, Mothers’ Day.  When I explained to the girls that we were once again creating the Mother’s Day artwork for the Join My Village community, many responded the same way. "Yeah, we will need a day to do this; our major challenge is to select which message to write."  It was on...
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Being a camp coordinator of a residential school for hundred girls is not an easy job description. The fact that none of these hundred girls have ever lived away from home before doesn’t make the task any easier. This is the story of Poonam Gupta, the new camp coordinator of Udaan who joined the team more than six months ago. A teacher by profession, Poonam has been working in education projects for the last eight years. She has been managing residential schools for the majority of...
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A narrow, dusty road led me to the Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya at Nauthala village in Mehsi block of Bahraich district in Uttar Pradesh, where I had gone looking for a story. The KGBV in Mehsi, supported by the Girls’ Education Program of CARE’s Join My Village, is one of the newest. Their first batch of 75 girls completed the program last year. The majority of those girls are now enrolled in primary schools. This is an achievement in itself because the community in Mehsi...
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It was a mild, rainy afternoon and I set off for Linyangwa Secondary school, some 43 kilometres (27 miles) away from Kasungu town to meet with some of our Join My Village girls who are students at the Linyangwa secondary school.  Some of the students were at their home away from home in a local hostel where they were busy preparing a meal while some others were at a borehole drawing water. I wanted to learn more from these girls about what life is like...
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Fajru Khan, 40 years young and dynamic, is an inspiration to many. He has been working in the region of Mewat for last 14 years in various education projects. He joined Udaan as a field coordinator 6 months back.  “His true calling” he says, “is to work for girls’ education. And my mission is to make Mewat a region which is not looked down upon but considered an example!”When speaking about the community Fajru says, “No doubt, this community is very difficult to work with....
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