Literacy

By: Mimi Kuo-Deemer
Submitted: 04/09/2010

Rampayari (pictured on the right) is 15 years old, and has completed three years of a literacy program run by Doorsha Dashak, an organization that works to assist young women and men in gaining education and working skills. Married at the age of 14, Rampayari has 1 year-old son named Amin. 60 year old Laxmi (left) is her grandmother; Laxmi never received an education or benefited from any of the opportunities that her granddaughter now has. With her education, Rampayari says will write and read books, and hopes to complete the fourth and final year of the Doorsha Dashak literacy program. She feels that with an education, she has the confidence and independence to go to town and shop on her own -- something her mother and grandmother never did because they were afraid of feeling ignorant and being cheated. Rampayari also has hopes that she can one day begin marketing of her own handicrafts she makes. All this, she says, is because she can read.