It was not long after her 10th birthday when Sandhya Ray stopped going to school.
The high school closest to her village in Madhya Pradesh, India, was five kilometres away and only accessible through a dense forest area. As a young girl, it wasn’t safe for Sandhya to travel alone and her parents couldn’t afford to spend hours away from their small farm to walk her to school and back. The farm was their only source of income, so rather than starting 6th grade, Sandhya went to work alongside her parents instead.
When Sandyha grew and married, she moved to a slum in Delhi with her husband Jaidev. Sandhya worked as a maid and Jaidev as a nurse, but their income was just a few dollars a day.
Dark and muddy, their makeshift home had plastic walls and no electricity.
“I used to feel very scared in this house. I used to feel claustrophobic. It was always dark. Rain water would flood in and there were mice all around.”
Then, thanks to a hand up through a small loan, Sandhya grew her own kiosk business, stocking some shelves in her home with chickpeas, lentils, spices, snacks and drinks to sell to others in her community.
Today, life is very different for Sandhya. Her income has grown to Rp.600 (A$12) a day and they have been able to put brick walls and a proper floor on their home. The couple now have three children – Rajeev, Ritesh and Rajnandani – and the first of Sandhya’s profits are always spent on sending them to school.
“I keep guiding my children to value education the most. I give them my example and tell them how important it is to be educated in today’s time. One can stand on their own if they have the gift of education.”
Give a gift to invest in a mother living in poverty and help her use a small loan to start her own business. With a loan as small as $70, mothers like Sandhya can put food on the table, send their children to school and transform their families' futures for generations.
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