This March through June, She's the First is giving you a fun opportunity to send more girls to school. It's as simple as asking friends and family to support you in a race, or organizing your own fitness fundraiser, from yoga to spinning classes. Sign up your event on our Causevox page and help us sponsor 100 girls in 100 days!
Do you want to make a difference on your home campus? Join the 30+ campus chapters across the country and inspire your middle school, high school, or university to empower and educate girls in the developing world!
Beautiful illustration of India, home to our girls at Shanti Bhavan!
(via aplaceforart)
Just in time for lunch, here is a picture that is good enough to eat!
Rice, dahl, and curry on the side, served on a banana leaf! Christen Brandt and Kate Lord recently returned from their trip to India, visiting with students from Shanti Bhavan.
Fun Fact: Maheshwari, a Shanti Bhavan student, and her mom had to teach Christen and Kate how to eat rice with their hands!
BEAUTIFUL henna done by Jancy, a recently graduate of Shanti Bhavan!
Check out the STF 360 photostream on flickr for more gorgeous photos from Kate Lord documenting her’s and Christen’s time in India!
A beautiful, and much loved, spot on the campus at Shanti Bhavan. Look at how brave Prathiba is by overcoming her fear and jumping from boulder to boulder!
Beautiful saris in all different colors! Check out Kate and Christen’s time sari shopping with the Shanti Bhavan graduates here.
Our friend Christen Brandt is currently in India visiting girls at Shanti Bhavan. Here she is with a Shanti Bhavan girl, Maheshwari, and her cousins blowing bubbles!
Follow along with Christen and Kate in our special project, #STF360India.
An amazing video from our friends at 10x10 Act that features Parvati, the first in her family to read and write.
Our VOICE YOUR VERSE Poetry Campaign is in full swing— submit your poetry for a chance to be published in our anthology, which will donate all proceeds to girls’ sponsorships! If you’re a U.S. student who is collegebound or currently in college, enter via the contest on Zinch.com, because YOU could win a $500 scholarship — and Chegg for Good is matching that with $500 for Jancy, the graduating senior we sponsor in India!
We’re thrilled Lindsay is blogging about her adventures at Shanti Bhavan, our partner school in India! Expect lots of reblogging from her :)
way to go Harimaya! Harimaya scored 1st in her class on last week’s english spelling quiz! (in nepal they don’t give letter grades or percentages on exams, instead they rank the kids 1st, 2nd, 3rd…)
i’m super proud of Harimaya because it’s only her second year here at Kopila and she is learning english so quickly! each school day, during 2nd period i sit in the library with Harimaya and a few other students and we practice spelling words. Harimaya has the prettiest green eyes and is one of the sweetest girls i’ve met here. she’s such a happy person so at first it was really hard for me to believe her when she told me she’s a servant and never has time to study outside of school or play with her friends. when i first got here, i would always ask her “can you come to soccer practice today?” everyday she would reply with the biggest smile “i have family emergency. i go home now.” after a few days, i decided to finally ask her what this family emergency was. she told me the family she works for just had a newborn baby that she’s in charge of taking care of. i asked if she liked the new baby and she giggled “no, it cries so much. i so tired and they say ‘harimaya, clean the baby’ so i cry and now me and baby cry together” she never stopped smiling and giggling the whole time she told me this- i just sat there nodding my head thinking “wow, at your age i’m pretty sure i rushed home to play with american girl dolls, you’re rushing home to take care of an actual baby and an entire household” talk about unfair.
last friday i had tea with the family Harimaya works for and told them all about the girls’ soccer team. i could tell harimaya was originally uncomfortable with me coming over but i really wanted to see what she goes home to everyday. it was hard for me to sit there while harimaya served us all then cleaned everything up while lugging around the baby. even though i wanted to be so mad at the family, i realized this is just how the way things are around here. luckily, harimaya’s such a positive person i know she will still do amazing in school despite having such a hard home life (if you can call it that).
now i’m really glad i visited the family and i think harimaya is too. this past week they actually let her stay late after school one time so she could go to soccer practice with the rest of her friends. when she told me the news earlier that day at school she had an even bigger smile on her face, something i didn’t think was possible. at practice, i could of cared less every time harimaya toe-poked the ball, just seeing her being able to act her own age and laughing for all the right reasons made me happy enough.
