KABITA OF PROJECT MALA
Location: Garauli Parav, India
Description and Impact:
Kabita Sharma resides in the Village of Rampur with her parents and 5 siblings. This family of 8 is Hindu and lives in a homemade on unirrigated land with only 2 mudrooms and a community well for their water supply. Her entire family is literate however her father, a farmer, is the only one who receives an income. 15 year old Kabita attends the Patehra school of Project Mala with the scholarships WEF has provided her with. Although she is the 4th oldest child of her siblings, she has a noticeable ambition to gain an education.
Kabita realizes that the only way she can become self-dependent and help support her family is through the education Project Mala provides. She says she comes from a low-income family and thus would never be able to attend a school if it wasn’t for this project’s generosity. Kabita also realizes that Project Mala’s priority is to help those who need it the most: the children who’s parents aren’t able to afford education on their own. Since she resonates with this goal on a personal level, she is able to embrace the education even more. Kabita shows her gratitude for the scholarships and sponsors because without them, “it’s difficult to get an education”. She says that if her parents had to fund her schooling, it would be at her sibling’s expense and that she would also have to work on the side. Since she comes from a large family, it’s hard to ensure that all siblings get equal opportunities to obtain an education. That’s where Project Mala and the WEF scholarships come in, she says. The people running the operation acknowledge that if they aren’t able to help everyone, they can at least help someone and that one person can make all the difference in the world. The difference made in Kabita’s life by WEF Funded Project Mala will mean everything to herself and her family.