“TEACHER, TEACHER! I WANT TO BE JUST LIKE YOU!!”
Every day little Rasida would look up to her teachers in our classroom, dreaming that she’d get to become just like them one day!
If not for Vision Rescue though, little Rashida may never have had access to quality education in the first place….
Let’s backtrack a little: Rasida’s father grew up in Uttar Pradesh, but he always dreamt of moving to Mumbai – the city of dreams. The glamour and fast-paced life of the city fascinated him.
But the side of the city that he saw when he migrated here was very different. He could only find an affordable home in the city of 22 million in its poorest ward – M East Ward. His slum cluster is an unauthorized settlement, meaning that his home can be razed to the ground by bulldozers unannounced any day. While it still stood ground, he had to fight for basic necessities such as water, electricity, and sanitation – all mostly procured from private dealers quoting arbitrary prices.
Rasida’s father is a zari worker (hand-embroiderer), and the family’s sole breadwinner. Rasida’s family of four lives in this house and survives on the daily wages of her father.
While Rasida’s parents wanted her to be educated right from age 3, the hurdles they faced to meet this goal were numerous. One, the nearest free municipal school is quite a walk away; two, quality education usually meant enrolling in private schools that are exorbitant, and three, Rasida was just 3 years old – too little for school her parents thought. Her parents decided to hold off her education until she turned 6, and could go unassisted to the nearest free municipal school.
What they didn’t know was the value of early childhood education. By spending her days at home, without any stimulative material, Rasida was losing her foundational educational years to poverty. When our community workers met Rashida’s family back in 2018, they discussed extensively about how formative early childhood education can be; and then her parents enrolled Rasida in our Beacon Learning Centre.
From 2018 to date – 4 whole years! – your gifts have reached out to little Rashida with hearty nutritious meals every weekday, stationery, regular health checkups, and dental assessments, educational material, and much more.
When the pandemic hit the country in March 2020, Rashida was in our senior kindergarten, and her good days with us suddenly came to an end. Her father lost his job; their world came to a halt. With no source of income, he struggled to provide basic needs for his family. Every day of the lockdowns, Rasida’s mother would worry – “Will my children go to bed hungry today too?”
The situation was tense but kind supporters like you stepped in to help Rasida and her family with groceries each month and nutritious snacks for the children throughout the pandemic. They were so relieved.
But little Rasida was still sad. She thought her dreams of becoming a teacher were shattered as schools were shut indefinitely throughout the country. She didn’t even have access to a working smartphone in her home that could enable her to join our online classes.
But once again, your donations came to Rashida’s rescue. We were able to send an Education Representative to Rasida’s house to teach her the daily lesson on the Rep’s smartphone. Rashida completed an entire academic year online with us this way, and today she’s enrolled in our Open Basic Education Class 1. She still dreams of becoming a teacher, and we’re so excited to cheer her on!.
Thank you for fulfilling Rasida’s dream by sustaining and engaging her in education through all these years.
Thank you for Reaching out with Love and standing with Rasida and her family in their toughest times.
