Fourteen year old Beena lives with her parents, four sisters and a brother. Her father, Kanchid Singh, is a farmer and her mother, Saroj, is a house wife. Her father is literate but her mother is illiterate.  Beena is a very sincere girl in her class. Her favourite subject is Math. She likes to play Kho Kho. She likes reading stories.

Beena is quite ambitious, and wants to have a career after graduating from high school. However, like most other girls hailing from rural India, she is not very proficient in spoken English, and neither are her computer skills very strong. This puts her at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to getting jobs.

Your donations, Jennifer, Cindi, Udai (x3), Neil, Pradeep, Maria (x2), Matthew and Tim and Melissa (x2), will enable Beena to have an entire year of spoken English classes and computer education classes. These classes would be held every week, and will give Beena the much needed confidence to compete in the job market.

Thank you for coming together to support Beena.

Mamta is a serious girl in her class .She likes reading stories. She is much interested about playing badminton. She is very serious in her nature. Her favourite colour is pink. Her aim of life is to be a famous player of badminton.

Mamta lives in the village Duptakala, which is a long distance from the school. Since the distance is long, Mamta would have been forced to drop out of school, if not for your donation, Casey, of a bicycle. Now, Mamta can cycle to school every day.

Thank you, Casey, for ensuring Mamta can continue getting an education.

Kausar studies in grade 8 at the school run by Pardada Pardadi. She likes to play sports at school, especially baseball.  Her favorite class is English and she likes learning vocational work also.    Her parents have taken action to keep all the girls in school, giving them opportunities they themselves never had. After she finishes school Kausar would like to join to be a teacher.

Coming from the kind of background that she does, Kausar, suffers from many social and economic handicaps. Thanks to your donations, Akiko, CC (x5) and Carl (x6), Kausar will have a computer lesson and a class on spoken English once a week for an entire year. She will also go through personality development workshops, which will ensure that she can hold her own among better educated girls.

Thank you, Akiko, CC and Carl, for coming together to support Kausar.

Eleven year old Varsha lives in the village of Dungra Jaat, and she is currently in grade 5. Her mother, Mokam, is a farmer, and her mother, Babita, is a housewife; her father is educated but her mother has none. Varsha has one brother and one sister.

Varsha works hard in school and it pays off for her. Every morning she gets to school by the school bus that is provided for her by Pardada Pardadi. At school, her favorite subjects are English and math; one can see her practicing both her English and math on her break times or with teachers and friends. Her hard work and dedication is needed if she is to be an engineer! During activity time, Varsha loves to dance and many of her friends say that she is a great dancer. Varsha likes school because she gets to read, and she also likes the food that is served her. After school, sometimes Varsha will get a samosa, a pastry like snack shaped like a triangle filled with potatoes, peas, and spices, for Rs. 5 (20 cents) or a piece of barfi which is her favorite sweet. Barfi is a milk based sweet which is perfect for the summer because it is not sticky or it doesn’t melt. At home, Varsha helps her mother clean the pots.

Thank you so much, Alka, for donating a set of two school uniforms to Varsha. Every day that Varsha comes to school is another day that is promised for her success in life.

She however, wanted to become financially independent, because she realized that she would have a say in her future only if she was able to contribute to the family income. Without much education, and with no training, there was, however, little that Sarjeeti could do to earn money.

Your doantions, Katelyn (x2), James (x2) and Fawn (x2), will enable Sarjeeti to go through a six month vocational training course. This course, which will be conducted by Pardada Pardadi, will train her in tailoring, and will guarantee that she will get a job at the end of the course.

Thank you, Katelyn, James and Fawn, for giving hope to Sarjeeti. She likes to play Volleyball  and read books whenever she can get her hands on them.

Priya is 7 years old, and hails from the village of Khalor in Uttar Pradesh. Her father, Pramod, is a laborer, and her mother, Rama, is a housewife. Priya lives in a 4 room house that has a toilet, hand pump for water, and electricity. Priya is one of the luckier students because many of her fellow students do not have as much. After school, Priya helps out her mother by doing some housework includes cleaning the pots before and after cooking.

Priya is a very intelligent girl and is enrolled in grade 2 at the school run by Pardada Pardadi in Uttar Pradesh. She comes to school regularly by one of the school buses that are provided for her by the school. Her favorite subject is English, which she practices on all the volunteers that come to the school. Even though Priya is shy to start with, once she opens up, she becomes quite a chatterbox.

In Priya’s class, there is a period during the day in which the students can play games, and one of her favorite games is called kho-kho. Kho-kho is designed around the concept of chase and tag which all the girls love to play it. Every Saturday at school, Priya is given one of her favorite sweets at Pardada Pardadi for lunch, and it is called jalebi. It is orange sugar syrup deep fried and it is very sticky, but many of the girls love this sweet! Her family is very devoted to her education, and so is Priya; she loves coming to school every day. As of right now, she wants to become a doctor.

Thank you, Paavnee, Vikram, Aparajita, Christine, Nischal (x2), Eric and Sara (x5) for coming together to provide an entire year of tuition for Priya. Every day that Priya comes to school is another day that is promised for her success in life.

Meenakshi is very intelligent girl. She is very sincere in her work. All teachers like her. She respects all teachers. She is very good girl. Meenakshi always follows her school rules and regulations. Her favorite subject is English and Math. She likes to play cricket. Her future plan is to be a good doctor in a big city.

Your donation, James, enabled Pardada Pardadi to gift a cycle to Meenakshi. Her parents were thinking of taking her out of school, because they felt it was not safe for a girl to walk to school alone. But now that she has her own cycle, she can cycle down safely.

Thank you, James, for ensuring Meenakshi continues attending school.

Neeshu is ten years old and is a resident of Tooli in rural Uttar Pradesh. She is studying in grade 5 at the school run by Pardada Pardadi in Anoopshahar. Her father, Ajay, is a laborer, and her mother, Mamta, is a housewife and tailor; both of her parents are uneducated. She has one brother and two sisters who all live in a one room house.

Neeshu’s attitude towards school is great! Every day she is excited to get on the school bus and come to school, where her favorite subject is English. Neeshu likes to read her a lot since she has the access to tons of books; she reads a lot because she wants to be educated enough to get a job as a teacher and help support her family. After school, sometimes Neeshu will get a samosa, a pastry like snack shaped like a triangle filled with potatoes, peas, and spices, for 5 rupees or a piece of barfi which is her favorite sweet. Barfi is a milk based sweet which is perfect for the summer because it is not sticky and doesn’t melt. At home, Neeshu helps her mom is preparing food and cleaning.

Thank you so much, Aparajita, for donating a set of two school uniforms to Neeshu. Every day that Neeshu comes to school is another day that is promised for her success in life.

Poonam Kumari is 14 years old, and studies in grade 9 at the school run by Pardada Pardadi in Uttar Pradesh. She lives in the village of Torai, with her parents, three sisters and one brother. Her father, Totaram Singh, is a farmer and her mother, Rajesh, is house wife. Her father has a grade 10 education, but her mother has none.

Poonam is a bright girl who came second in her class in last year’s exams.  Poonam likes to make jokes and make other people laugh – she’s always smiling.  She enjoys playing cricket and her favorite subject is English.  When she finishes school Poonam wants to join the police because she likes their uniform.  Her favorite thing about school is learning how to use the computers in the computer lab.

Thank you, Jeff and Tricia, for donating a set of school uniforms to Poonam. Your gift also includes a set of warm clothes, a pair of shoes and two pairs of socks. Wearing the uniform gives Poonam an additional sense of dignity and pride, and helps her to fight for her right to an education.

Thank you for supporting Poonam.

Nisha is an extremely vivacious girl. Her favorite subject is English,but she loves computer classes too. Nisha likes to draw pictures on the computer using MS Paint, and since she has been practicing hard on her typing she hopes to get proficient at it soon.

Nisha plays Kho-kho very well, but she doesn’t like either singing or dancing. Her father is literate and her mother is illiterate, but they both support her dream of becoming a doctor. Her favorite colour is pink, and her favorite food is rice and lentils.

Your donations, Sabari, Asayo (x9) and Nathan (x2), will enable Nisha to have computer classes, and spoken English classes every week for an entire year. These skills, along with personality development workshops will give Nisha the much needed confidence to take up a job in the fast growing service sector.

Thank you, Sabari, Asayo and Nathan, for supporting Nisha.