Naeema’s experience has allowed
other women to have a second opportunity to access to
education
Naeema is the oldest and only girl of her three brothers.
Traditionally, she would stay at home doing housework until
she got married, until ActionAid International —an
organization with whom Ayuda en Acción works in Asia
and Africa— and other associations, like Shadabad
Organization for Welfare, built a school for girls 5 years
ago.
The town of Dodo Brihmani, in the Southwest of the country,
only had a public school for men. Naeema’s father
never wanted her daughter to study, but her mother insisted
her to go. “When I was chosen as one of the girls
to go to that school, my father protested before the Committee
because I was the only girl in the family and I had to help
at home, going to get water and feeding the animals”,
says Naeema.
After several minutes of intense debate, a person in the
Committee asked me: “Do you want to go to school?”
and I said “yes”. My father couldn’t say
anything else.
Naeema’s experience has allowed other women to have
a second opportunity to access to education.
More independence. The idea of not wanting to depend on
anybody to learn how to read or write motivated her to break
the traditional barriers. Now, Naeema has two very important
missions: promote education and protect women’s rights
in her community. Naeema tries to visit all the houses in
her community to convince parents and children of the value
of education, especially for girls.
The results are on the table: the matriculation in the school
has increased a 50% alter its first year of activity. Naeema
has convinced a lot of friends who didn’t have the
chance to go to school when they were young. This way, thanks
to education circles for adults, women have a second opportunity
to learn to read and write.
