Interview with our student, Esha - Pakistan Program

We are delighted to have the opportunity to share some thoughts directly from the girls we support in Pakistan. In this entry, we introduce you to Esha.

Q: What’s your name and how old are you

My name is Esha and I am 14 years old. As I never celebrated my birthday so I don’t know my exact age. I am from village Sayyidan.

Q: What does education mean to you?

To me, education is very much important in our lives. Educated people can help and support others in an effective way. Any society can succeed on the basis of education.

Q: How does the opportunity of education change women’s life?

If a woman is not educated, she may face many different problems. An educated woman can earn good and so can provide her children with good health and quality education. A literate woman can easily travel to other cities or places. If she becomes a widow she doesn’t need anyone to take care of her. She can take better care of rights of her husband and children. An educated woman has strong decision making power and can speak up in decisions regarding her life.

Q: What is your favorite subject and why?

I like Islamiat [Islamic Religious Studies] and Urdu. Islamiat provides me the knowledge about our religion. I love the stories in Urdu, especially the love stories of girls and boys.

Q: Tell us something about you that you want us to know. What do you like to do in your free time? What are your dreams?

I now know why Bedari is interested in girl’s education. I spend my leisure time while reading stories, doing household chores and working in fields. I have only one best friend. I want to become a pilot in future. I am very fond of higher education. I have a dream that may my house be the best in the entire world. I want a high school for girls in the village.

Rifaat Studying in High School!

Riffat Shaheen – a resident of village Laphi nearly 48 Kilometers away from Chakwal city – was studying in 5th grade, when her father, a patient of diabetes, died. It was a time of great difficulty for her mother Makhtoom Begum – an illiterate woman with five kids to take care of. She had a small piece of cultivable land, which she started tilling on her own. It did help to some extent, but was not enough to keep the family in good condition. As Riffat passed her 5th grade examination, her mother stopped her from going to school. Riffat joined her mother in tilling the small piece of land. It was very depressing for her to work in the fields and see her classmates on their way to school passing by her fields. But she had no other options.

Thanks to the financial support from Girls Education International, our Pakistani partner organization, Bedari, selected Riffaat for an educational scholarship, which enabled her to join her school after a break of two years. Now she is studying in grade 6. She is very happy. She says, ‘the first day at school when I rejoined was the best and the happiest day of my life’.