In India, the road to quality education for girls is filled with obstacles.

In order to reach school and continue their studies, girls have to overcome many challenges that boys simply don’t share because of their gender. Girls either are never sent to school or they drop out before reaching ninth grade.

There are many factors that influence a girl’s education:

• Have parents who prefer to send their sons to school
• From poor families who cannot afford to send their children to school
• Asked by family to care for their younger siblings
• Attend schools with low number of female teachers
• Child Marriage
• Child Labor
• Feel unsafe traveling the distance between home and school

In response to this dilemma, One Life to Love started an Education Program in 2016, with an aim to educate the girl child. We know that when you educate a girl, you educate her children, her family, her community…her nation.

Today, One Life to Love sponsors the education of 400 underprivileged children, and there are plans to reach 300 more in 2017.

Every one of our students has overcome obstacles to get to where they are today. Anita (photo-center), for instance, has a deep love for animals. She takes care of the street dogs in her locality; feeding them whatever leftovers she collects from neighbors. She dreamed of becoming a veterinarian one day. But as she got older, she started to realize that her dreams were wasted.

Anita happily studied till fifth grade, and then her parents brought home bad news: She would need to quit school and stay home to care for her three younger sisters.

Anita’s Uncle needed surgery, so her parents would need to work long hours to contribute to this expense. She pleaded for them to find another way, but there wasn’t. Her parents tried to console her by explaining that school was “not for her” since she would be married in a few years anyway. This of course only increased Anita’s devastation.

“If you know your what you want in life, but someone tells you it is not possible, then you find it difficult to live,” Anita recalls feeling hopeless and angry those days.

Her anguish, however, did not last long. OL2L heard about Anita’s situation and visited her family. We were able to help them find a very good hospital that would perform the Uncle’s surgery for half the cost. We also helped Anita’s parents realize how important education was for their daughter.

“Now I can focus on my studies. I can even go to college, become a veterinarian so I can help animals. And I will get good pay so I can provide for my family, maybe even send my younger sisters to college, too.”

This February, One Life to Love aims to raise $70,000 in order to continue sponsoring 400 children and expand to reach 300 more children– that’s just $100 per child, per year to provide quality education for an underprivileged girl.

Consider showing her what love is by donating here: https://www.mogiv.com/onelifetolove/loveis

Stay tuned with us this month as we highlight the importance of Girls’ Education and share stories from mothers, teachers, students and leaders on how education is changing the world.