By Mrinalini Samanta and Julia Desmarais
Please note updated fundraiser date and location!
What does it mean to be a girl in an impoverished nation? For many, it means not getting an education, it means being deprived of the opportunity to get a job, and it means not being able to support your family. It means being restricted to living in a house where you have no say and no rights.
In most third-world countries, it is the mothers who stay home to take care of the families and to teach the children, but if the mothers are deprived of education, how can they teach? How can their children learn? One woman’s lack of education hurts both her sons and her daughters, and their children after them. But until an attitude of acceptance towards women and an understanding of the importance of education are fostered, this cycle will not end. That is where GlobalSchoolhouse, a student-run club at Horace Greeley High School, comes in. The mission of GlobalSchoolhouse is to stop this cycle in its tracks by helping to raise awareness and to fund education for women and girls across the world. We believe that every child deserves the right to a better future, and we believe that by teaching a girl you educate an entire family. In short, we believe in the power of education.
That is why we are raising funds to support an organization called Sir Syed Trust (SST) in India. SST has been teaching women and girls how to sew and make clothes, a skill that will not only help their families and their job opportunities, but will also teach them math and measurement. After those skills are taught, SST moves on to teaching reading and writing. We at GlobalSchoolhouse, as part of our ongoing commitment to SST, are collecting children’s books to supply a new library in India.
But our work does not stop there. We are also sponsoring and corresponding with a girl in Cambodia through the Cambodian Children’s Fund. Her name is Srey Reab, and before we sponsored her, she and her family were picking through the trash to survive. She is now getting educated and making many new friends.
To raise money for these two organizations, GlobalSchoolhouse will be holding a fundraiser on December 8th from 10-2:30 in the Greeley Cafeteria. We will be selling home furnishings (blankets, pillowcases, etc.) made by women in India and generously donated by Kuldeep Kaur, who designs and manufactures these products for many well-known designers including Barbara Barry, Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein (http://www.betterlivingcollection.com/). The women who have handcrafted these beautiful works of art were once illiterate and desperate, but are now successfully supporting their families and sending their children to school.
Please come support our cause – we look forward to seeing you on the 8th! In the mean time, if you have any questions, please contact us at global.schoolhousehghs@gmail.com.
Mrinalini Samanta and Julia Desmarais, juniors at Horace Greeley High School, are the Co-Presidents and Founders of GlobalSchoolhouse.