Ayesha

LOCKED DOWN, BUT STILL LEARNING!

Ayesha’s 8 member-family lives in one of the poorest slums of Mumbai. Back in their village, Ayesha’s parents couldn’t complete their schooling but they always knew how important education was. In fact, they moved to Mumbai so that their children could have a better future! Ayesha’s father made sure that his older children were enrolled in schools so their future was secured.

But by the time it was Ayesha’s turn to get enrolled in school, the pandemic hit the country and a nationwide lockdown was announced. The pandemic caused a huge disruption in the enrollment process for the new academic year 2020-21. Nationwide, the school enrollment rate dropped down and more than more than 14% of children across India struggled to get admissions in schools. Little Ayesha was one among these children!

The lockdown shut the doors of Ayesha’s slum community for us. But it was your generous support that helped us to raise Community Champions and Interns from these slum communities themselves. These Champions and Interns became our hands and feet within the communities. It was them who went on to enroll over 1300 children in our online Beacon Learning Centre during the pandemic.

Little Ayesha too was thus enrolled in our online Junior Kindergarten last year in 2021. Initially, Ayesha’s mother found it difficult to help Ayesha operate the smartphone for her online studies. Gradually, Ayesha started to catch up on her lessons and classes. Her mother couldn’t be more happy seeing her child learn and take part in her online class activities! Her teachers say she’s always enthusiastic and excited about trying out new things at home!

The pandemic brought with it a hunger crisis, rising unemployment and financial hardships. The poor in India were hit the worst. Ayesha’s father struggled with all of these. Feeding six children everyday with no stable job seemed impossible. Things could have gotten worse but your donations reached Ayesha’s family right on time. Ayesha’s family received groceries from Vision Rescue each month throughout the pandemic while she and her siblings got hearty nutritious snacks too.

The lockdowns eventually eased and the government introduced the covid-19 vaccines. Due to illiteracy and lack of information, the rumours against vaccines started spreading like wildfire in Ayesha’s slum community. However, for Ayesha’s parents to reenter the daily-wage labor workforce, and even to use public transport for commutes, vaccines were mandatory. The fear of vaccines grew among the parents and neighbors of our children. That’s when our healthcare team sent awareness videos busting the myths and rumours of the vaccines by giving them the correct information about the same. Along with many other parents in the slum community, who were convinced to take their shots, Ayesha’s parents too agreed to get theirs.

All of these support services – such as awareness camps, nutrition kits, parents’ training etc. – helped Ayesha and many other children like her in her slum community to stay safe and sustain in their online education.

Thank you for your gifts that opened the doors of online education for Ayesha during the pandemic.