Room to Read co-founder on trip that sowed the seeds of charity 20 years ago, and the schoolchildren, especially girls, it has helped
John Wood, then a Sydney executive, was appalled when he visited a school in Nepal on holiday and saw only three books there; he returned with 3,000, and helped set up an education charity that has reached 12.4 million children in 20 years
Madhu’s world came crashing down one morning when her father summoned her and said, “There is no need for you to go to school any more”. The 15-year-old asked why, even though she already knew the answer: “Because a girl’s place is in the house and you are wasting your time in school.”
When her parents started pressuring her to get married, Madhu’s dreams of finishing her education and getting a job seemed to have come to an end. She would be no different from most of the girls in her village in the Indian state of Rajasthan, where more than half of the female population is illiterate.
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In a village in the Bardiya district of western Nepal, 16-year-old Parbati began another day of housework with a heavy heart. Parbati had moved in with her aunt after her mother’s death. With the responsibility of doing all the housework, she was barely able to keep up with school and tired all the time.
Then she heard about kamlari – an illegal, yet common practice in parts of Nepal under which children become bonded labourers, sold into lifelong slavery to repay their families’ loans. Was she a kamlari, too?
Madhu and Parbati’s stories are commonplace. Tens of millions of girls like them in developing countries have their dreams crushed by poverty, antiquated customs and societal norms.
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