Education and Poverty

From World Vision's Winter 2007/08 Childview, The Magazine for Child Sponsors, pages 11-12, is a story about a young girl from Bangladesh and what her education, made possible by a sponsor from Manitoba, Canada, meant in her life and those she was able to reach through her education:

EDUCATION GAP
Poverty and gender disparity nearly kept Sheuli Som from getting an education. Today the former sponsored child in Bangladesh holds a university degree

By Heather Buchan

Sheuli Som
Netrokona District, Bangladesh

Sheuli Som recalls a terrifying night in 1988 as an eight-year-old; she and her sister and brother sat huddled together in the dark at the side of a rural highway in Bangladesh crying in fear. Earlier that day, a flash flood had engulfed their village in Netrokona District and Som's parents sent their three children in a neighbour's boat to higher ground where they would be safe.

"We didn't know where we would go or when we would meet our parents," she remembers. Eventually, Som and her siblings reunited with their parents, but her family lost everything in that flood, including her home. Her father also lost his job as an agricultural labourer -- the family's only source of income.

Although devastating, the floor was a temporary hurdle that Som and her family managed to get over. They relocated, constructed a new home and slowly rebuilt their lives. But the poverty the family continued to face made it challenging for Som to attend school and overcome Bangladesh's high illiteracy rates.

As of 2001, the United Nations reports 52.5 per cent of adults in Bangladesh are illiterate, with the majority being women. The gap in rural areas is even greater due to a lack of access to education.

But Som rose to the challenge and beat the odds. She is a 27-year-old assistant teacher who holds an arts degree and is currently completing a master's degree in philosophy. Her sheer dedication to become a teacher, along with her sponsorship through World Vision, have enabled her to realize her lifelong dream. "I had a dream to be higher educated," says Som, adding that she also wanted to become a teacher at an early age.

In Bangladesh, 36 per cent of the population lives on less than a dollar a day, reports UNICEF. Many of Som's community members could barely make ends meet, much less pay for school fees. "Poor families could hardly feed their children, so they would never think of educating their children," she explains.

When Som became a sponsored child two years after the flood, World Vision helped pay for her school fees and provided her with a school uniform, notebooks and other school supplies. Once a month, World Vision staff members visited her home to check on her health and academic progress.

Without child sponsorship, Som says she would have likely been married at a very young age, because her father couldn't afford to send all three of his children to school. UNICEF reports that nearly two out of three Bangladeshi young women are married before the legal age of 18.

A dedicated student, Som studied both before and after school. Year after year, she ranked among the top 10 students in her class. After completing high school, she attended the National University of Bangladesh.

Som remembers receiving her first letter from her Canadian sponsor, Donna Janzen of The Pas, Manitoba, who encouraged her to continue with her education. "I received a photo of [Jensen] with her daughter. She wrote that I am like her daughter," Som says of her sponsor. "It touched me -- a woman who never saw me treated me as her own daughter and supported me. I will never forget her support."

World Vision's influence in Som's life went beyond education. She participated in cultural programs and birthday celebrations. Staff members also developed awareness campaigns about HIV and AIDS prevention and proper sanitation methods in her village.

A world away, in rural Manitoba, Janzen is pleased to know how well Som is doing. "Knowing that my sponsorship somehow made a difference is very gratifying," says Janzen, who appreciated the progress reports and letters she received from Som over the years. "It's nice to know that now that the sponsorship is over, she continues to do well."

What does Som find most rewarding about being a teacher? "It is an opportunity for me to give back to my community," says Som, who today is able to help young girls overcome the same hardships she faced growing up, "because I am contributing towards building a literate generation and nation."
--With files from Amito James Asension
For more information on child sponsorship, go to worldvision.ca