Every one of us has the potential for remarkable achievements and every one of us can accomplish the impossible in our lives if given the right inspiration and motivation to do so. This is how I may summarize the good will that Join My Village (JMV) is doing. Most of our rural girls we support both in Primary and Secondary schools in Kasungu have never been to town and if you ask them what they want to be when they grew up, many of them will...
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The Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) was launched by the government of India in 2004 with the objective of building residential schools for out-of-school girls in marginalized communities. CARE India collaborated with the government to improve educational processes in these schools including, but not limited to, teacher development, institutional strengthening, material and curriculum development and monitoring and evaluation. Over 2000 girls in 24 districts of Uttar Pradesh have benefited from this programme.  Two such girls, Samreen Fatma and Kiran Gautam, age 12 and 11 respectively, study...
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An effective project is one which its goals are well set and explained and where all parties participate with a purpose. The construction of female teacher’s house by Join My Village in Kasungu has faced little or no resistance from the participating communities because it was well planned during the project’s inception that we all have a role. It is not surprising though that members of the communities know their roles in every mini-project of Join My Village and house construction being one. The women know...
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An unpaved path led us to a room that stood in isolation, ahead of the local school in Gudahiya, in Bahraich district of Uttar Pradesh, India. A group of young boys scurried about outside, while the eager participants of CARE’s Girls’ Leadership Programme*, waited for us inside.  We were welcomed with a song that questioned the plight of women; one that the girls sang with immense passion and determination. It made me think of the innumerable women across India who braved various manifestations of inequality and...
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Dressed in their respective school uniforms, some of our scholarship girls took their seats in a 30 seat-coaster bus destined for Lilongwe, the Capital city of Malawi. On arrival at Bunda College, our first destination, it was not strange seeing most of our girls admiring everything on the campus as most of them have never been to such places!  They had more questions than answers. Looking strange and out of place, the girls started organizing themselves for they knew they are here not only to admire...
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