A student today, a teacher tomorrow.
Meet Maisha – our Beacon Learning Centre student!
It’s been almost three decades since Maisha’s father moved to Mumbai. Her father Alam* rented a house in one of the largest and poorest slum communities in Mumbai. Living in abject poverty, they were deprived of basic facilities such as sanitation, water, schools and healthcare.
According to UNICEF, the early years of a child’s life are crucial to their development and over 43 per cent of children under the age of five are at risk of not fulfilling their full developmental potential. Maisha was one of these children; she had missed out on her crucial years of learning. Out of school, Maisha spent her days playing on the gully just outside her home all day. And that’s where we met her for the first time.
She took us home to meet her parents. After long conversations with her mother about the importance of education, Maisha’s mother agreed to enrol her in our Beacon Learning Centre within their slum community.
In 2019, Maisha walked into our Nursery class.
Maisha’s father, the sole earning member of the family, worked hard to provide for the family while her mother looked after the house and the children. In 2020 though, their world turned upside down. The first wave of the coronavirus hit the country and a nationwide lockdown was announced. Maisha’s father couldn’t go to work anymore. The coronavirus was rapidly spreading, schools, offices, and public transportation were all shut down. Maisha’s mother feared hunger for her children. For weeks all she could think of where the next meal would come from.
Things could have gotten worse but your gifts reached Maisha’s family right on time. With your donations and support, we were able to provide groceries to her family each month of the pandemic along with nutritious snacks for Maisha and her siblings.
During the pandemic, we switched to online classes for students who had access to basic mobile phones. But Maisha was left behind by the digital divide and missed out on her classes every day. With your support we raised an army of Education Representatives who taught children like Maisha on their own smartphones, going on house-to-house visits, so that they are not left behind.
It is only because of your gifts and support that Maisha was able to sustain in education even during the pandemic.
Seeing little Maisha learn and grow, her mother began to attend our focus group meeting for the women in her slum community .With her love and determination to grow, she went on to become our Community Champion and now leads the focus group meetings for parents like herself in her slum community.
Today, Maisha studies in our Open Basic Education – Class 1 and we look forward to enrolling Maisha in formal school soon.
Maisha dreams of becoming a teacher when she grows up and we are grateful to you for being a part of this beautiful journey!
Thank you for your generosity and kindness in engaging and sustaining Maisha in education and empowering her family.
