Advocacy:
IPHD employed two women from Bhikamkor to work as education advocates. The advocates, who were trained by an IPHD intern, are responsible for going door to door in the village to teach families about the value of educating their daughters and help willing families navigate the complex process of school enrollment.
Sponsorship:
Once a girl is enrolled, IPHD conducts a needs-based assessment to decide if the student qualifies for financial assistance. IPHD will pay for necessary supplies such as school and exam fees, uniforms, backpacks, notebooks and stationery — items that are often unattainable for families in poverty. IPHD also provides free transportation if a girl requires it.
Follow-Up:
Enrolling girls in school is only the beginning. The next step is a long-term, ongoing process in which IPHD works with families and school officials to ensure that students are consistently attending school and receiving a high-quality education.
Advocates conduct frequent check-ins with families to monitor their daughters’ attendances and address issues that prevent the girls from succeeding at school. IPHD also partnered with Bhikamkor’s government all-girls’ primary school to communicate openly about challenges that the school, with its limited resources, encounters when trying to provide high-quality education.
In one follow-up, the government school reported that its teachers were overburdened by the high number of newly enrolled IPHD-sponsored students. In response, IPHD successfully petitioned the local government to allow IPHD to employ two women from Bhikamkor as full-time teachers in the school. The teachers were trained by an IPHD intern, and they are responsible for teaching Hindi, English, mathematics and science to grades one through four.
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