Will help graduates of Vimukti School in Jaipur, India.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: EduGirls, a Maryland-based nonprofit that aims to transform the lives of girls living in slums through education designed and delivered to meet their unique needs, raised $60,000 at its annual fund raiser on June 7th in Vienna, Virginia.
The goal for this year’s campaign has been to increase enrollment, introduce “smart class” technology in schools to improve quality of learning, and to initiate scholarships for those graduates who are ready for college.
According to an official release from EduGirls, the event “recognized that the governments of the world have not shown the willingness, resources, flexibility, and responsiveness to eradicate the huge education deficit facing girls in poverty.”
At the annual event, EduGirls offered to develop and raise resources for a program called “One Million Girls in School in a Decade” aimed at girls living in poverty.
It raised $60,000 at the fundraiser for its 2015 campaign to increase enrollment, upgrade classrooms to “smart classes” and to start college scholarships for deserving high school graduates at Vimukti School in Jaipur, India.
Vimukti Girls School, the first school supported by EduGirls, is the organization’s flagship project. To date, Vimukti has enrolled five hundred girls, coming from families that make less than $100-per-month with diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds.
Students in the EduGirls program attend school for four hours a day, six days a week throughout the year. They are provided door-to-door transport, books, a nutritious meal, and medical support. Older girls are also provided with vocational training while they learn, which keeps them in school and arms them with skills they can use to bolster their family’s income.
“Delivering education in the context of girls living in poverty is too much of a challenge for rigid, bureaucratic and unresponsive Government systems, and only the non-profit sector run by caring and motivated people, has shown the way forward through innovation, in some cases working with Government schools,” said Anand Seth, Founder of EduGirls.
While presenting the results from 2014 and upcoming plans for 2015, Executive Director Sudha Garg said: “EduGirls plans to gradually expand to work with institutions outside India which focus on educating girls in poverty and thus become global.”
The Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT) Foundation made a second grant of $5,000 and launched a collaborative effort with Rotary International to support Vimukti Girls School. Vijay Khetarpal, while presenting the check on behalf of the MDRT Foundation, stated: “I am proud of the work that the foundation has done over the years to give back to the communities and improve the quality of lives for those in need as well as its continued and increased support in furthering the work of Vimukti Sanstha and hope other like minded foundations will consider doing so too.”
The event also highlighted the efforts of a group of children from Takoma Park, Md. who helped their parents organize a yard sale to raise $2,250 to continue the education of 10 Vimukti students they sponsored last year.
“The next generation is ready to take the effort to educate girls to a higher level,” commented Naina Boveja, a young social entrepreneur and founder of E-Collaborate who was invited to speak at the event.