The setting is the home of a young girl who is forced to drop out of school for financial reasons. The girl was doing quite well in school but this being India and particularly within the Muslim community, perhaps her not being in school isn’t so uncommon. These are some of the perceptions that an outsider might make at the setting but the truth is that her parents are devastated. Regardless of faith, they want to see their daughter flourish – confident and able to be an example to other girls and the modernity of her faith and people that practice it.

Enrolling in Pratham’s Second Chance program was a chance in the French sense of the word (luck), and in many ways – the founders and donors of the program can feel the true sense of their impact to society and the world at large. Second Chance is a program designed for girls that have dropped out of school – sometimes because of failure to pass the board exam (schools don’t readmit students because failing again will make their statistics look bad) and sometimes, like Sherine, due to financial hardships or other family and cultural issues.

The program is by no means perfect. A foundation course is open to all women that wish to enroll and this rigorous course will test these women on the basics of numeracy and literacy but quickly move forward. One woman  I met in Solapur was out of school for 40 years – but enrolled and soldiered through the course. I met one lady that had dropped out of school at grade 4 but put in the insurmountable effort required to first pass this foundation course and later work through the syllabus. This is important because it solves one of the perennial problems that India’s education system faces – that of teaching a group of students that are all at completely different levels of proficiency. Once enrolled, pass rates hover between 70% - 90%, but the women that failed to pass the foundation are always welcome to try again next year – only, I wonder how many women return.

In Sherine’s case, an incredibly bright student having only dropped out two years ago at grade 8, the question of her passing the foundation course wasn’t to be answered – but winning the trust of her parents that there is an organization in India that is offering free education to girls that have dropped out. This situation isn’t unique to her but to all girls and unmarried women from conservative families and particularly given the creative scams that run throughout India – but eventually her parents are convinced that organization’s work is legitimate and agree to send her.

Today, Sherine is proud as her parents. She passed her board exams and is now enrolled in college. She studies BCE (Business, Commerce and Economics) in Hyderabad but if this was a success story – Sherine stretches the meaning and value to girl child education activists. Each evening, Sherine turns her home into a classroom. Through training and support from Pratham, she runs one of Pratham’s urban camps for children in her community – teaching them to read, write and do arithmetic – the foundations of learning.

Like Sherine’s story – there are countless others that run counter to the injustices of life – breathing in hope that there are truly good people out there.

Her story highlights the remarkable power of believing in one another and being effective enablers and what an excellent story for the donors.

But what about those regular people around Sherine and that resonate with her story and her struggles – often times not ‘poor’ in the standard definition of it but circumstantially misfortunate?

Her story and those other women give me perspective:

If you think you’re too old to start or finish something, what about that 54-year-old woman that has been out of school for 40 years and is now finishing her diploma?

Want your children to do something that you didn’t manage to do? What about that lady who is so excited to study with her daughter as they prepare for the same board exam on the same day, though not seated together?

Think you are not good enough for something? What about the group of women, who, in a patriarchal society, stood up to their husbands and community to attend classes and work together so that almost 8 out of 10 of them pass the board exam?

Around the world, there are so many stories that challenge your own perception and assumptions about the world. The important thing, as I learn from Sherine and many other women, is to never give up. It is such a cliché and I definitely hate clichés but these stories are living examples of everyday people that have taken the initiative and accepted a helping hand to transform their lives. Perhaps that is a definition of resilience but in the face of adversity, I often think and meditate and it is stories like these that inspire me.