Most of us have seen the advertisements on TV with doe-eyed children, staring into the camera, begging for your mercy and your help. Or perhaps you’ve heard the melody of Sarah McLaughlin and the dying breeds of poverty stricken animals around the world. These stories tear at your heart and beckon your soul to make a difference in the world; but two minutes later, you change the channel and go back to your life of normality, forgetting about the less fortunate and getting caught up in your own problems. Your boss emails, your significant other calls you, and you’re back into your own world, forgetting about all of those in the world that are less fortunate.
Having been born in America was a lucky draw of the straws. We were born with running water, a roof over our heads, access to medical help, a loving family, and most importantly, a public education system that provided free schooling. We grew up being told we could be whatever we wanted when we grew up. For so many in the world, they don’t have that luxury. They don’t even have a chance or a choice. So many young children know a future of slavery, child-marriage, and poverty. As an American, that world seemed so far away to us, until we visited the Kripalu School in Kunda, India. That visit to the Kripalu School changed the way we will look at the world forever.
We learned of the Kripalu School through work colleagues, who spoke of a school that was changing the way women are educated in India. We put together our television production team to fly to India and film a pro-bono advertisement to raise awareness and funds for this donation-funded school in India. We knew we were going to help a worthy cause, but we didn’t realize just how much this school was changing the future of the entire Indian populations for the better. We saw firsthand that an education and only an education would provide these women the knowledge, the safety, the empowerment, and the strength to end a cycle of submissiveness and despair.
On our plane ride to India, we were all handed local newspapers. These newspapers were filled with stories of gang rape and other horrible acts committed on women of all ages, but what was most disturbing was that many of these women were very young. Unfortunately for so many women in India, they have no chance at a future. They have no chance at fighting back. Unlike in America, all too often, a woman in India is seen as a burden and a slave. The girls in India are not told they can be anything when they grow up. All they know is that their lives will involve being married off at a young age and becoming the slave to their future in-laws. There is rarely an education, and there is almost never a choice at a future. The women in India are so often place in the position of a victim, but The Kripalu School is changing all of this, educating women to become empowered and emboldened individuals in charge of their own lives.
The Kripalu School takes girls from the tender age of four and educates them through college at absolutely no cost to the students. Because the school is run completely on donations, students from all caste systems and all parts of rural India can attend the Kripalu School. You don’t have to be blessed from a wealthy family to earn a good education. The Kripalu School is completely free for students, which means this gives them the opportunity to learn, to live, to help themselves, and to help their families. From the core studies of math, science, and language, to vocational studies such as cosmetology and computer science, The Kripalu School provides these girls with the foundation to build a life of their own, a business of their own, and a future they can be proud of. While most girls are sold to another family or married off in their pre-teen years, The Kripalu School is changing the entire presence of women in the country of India.
An education not only helps the individual students of the Kripalu School, but it helps their families and villages as well. One student said that the education she receives is far better than the paid schools that her brothers attend so she is able to go home and teach her brothers the subjects she learns at school. As these girls learn subjects in school and also learn the ways that women deserve to be treated, they pass along these gifts to their own families and villages. Through this education at the Kripalu School, these girls are changing the lives of future generations to come.
For the first time, girls have aspirations of growing up to be police officers, teachers, and doctors. These girls understand the gift of education that they have been given and they want to pass it along to future generations. They are the forward change in a backwards system. The students of the Kripalu School are not only changing themselves for the better, but also changing their nation for the better.
Stay tuned for a full fundraising video we produced on location to learn how you can change the future of India.
