We’ve just returned from an extended trip to India. I hadn’t been back in 20 years, and this marked my husband and sons’ first trip there. It was a momentous experience, one that I have yet to capture in a manner that is comprehensive or cohesive. I’m working on it. It’s quite a chunk to digest. I snapped almost 3000 photos and have yet to pore through them all. I’m still reeling from the warmth of family hugs and the generous heaps of Bengali food.
One of the highlights of our trip was visiting the Piyali Learning Center in a village on the outskirts of Kolkata, where I was born. I don’t take for granted the straw I drew at birth. It’s kismet alone that is responsible for my lot in life. I was born to educated parents with the means to provide for me and spoil me. I never feared for my safety or wanted for anything. The same isn’t true for all girls in India, even today. The girls of Piyali value their education in ways commensurate to how much I take mine for granted, I suppose. Education isn’t a privilege in my family. It’s not a right. Education is an expectation.
The young girls of Piyali risk being married off at age 11. Many face a life of illiteracy and all the horrors that come with disenfranchisement and a stifled voice. Trafficking is a reality. “Much of the village lives on less than $1 per day. For most girls this means that school is not an option. Instead, they tend to their families’ needs, work in the fields and as domestic servants, endure abuse, and in many cases are married off as children. Since 2003 PACE has been working to change this.”
Before we left for India, my 9-year old son Deal wrote an opinion piece for school, inspired by what my aunt in Kolkata has told us about her work with the Piyali Learning Center and our family movie night watching the film Revolutionary Optimists. Here are my son’s words:
Bricks to Books
Imagine working in the hot every day instead of school. That is the scene in many third world countries. We can stop this once and for all. Education is the biggest power in the world.
My aunt helps a school with only girls in India. I’m going there to see the school. If those girls were not there they would be in brick. Working in the hot sun, or trafficked. This is their only hope for education. That is actually a great idea for a school. We can all help the school..
Brick fields use girls who could be in school. These girls learn to make bricks, not read or write. These girls carry six bricks on their heads. Why are they not carrying books? They make or carry 260 bricks a day at minimum.
The last reason is that girls are used for cleaning. Like in the movie Binta and the Great Idea, Soda had to clean instead of go to school. People can clean with their free time. Why say no school and clean the house? I would rather have an education than a clean house!
Schools are better than brick fields.
Deal turns 10 on Monday. Double digits for my baby boy. He was born sunnyside up, which marks his spirit to this day. He is kind and gentle and sensitive, yet strong in his convictions. Deal laughs easily and is quick to make a fart joke. His long lashes make me swoon, and his smile would melt the smirk off any curmudgeon. My boy is into all things LEGO, Minecraft, robots, and such. He reads voraciously. Yet this year for his birthday, he wants to help educate the girls at the Piyali Learning Center. He’s donating his birthday piggy bank money to Piyali and has asked his friends to donate instead of buy him presents. I swell with pride for this kid, my little feminist activist. He’s proof that a mother’s heart lives outside her body.
Wish Deal a Happy 10th Birthday and donate to help educate girls.
Ilina, we are moved. I have seen the same feeling in Bip, today is her Birthday too. I have sent the links to many. Donations should go to http://www.PACEUNIVERSAL.com
Wishing a great Birthday to our generous boy, Neal.Hope his dream comes true. You should visit more often.
A big hug from us.