This receipt shows how much we have given to the Women and Girls campaign for Pipal Tree.
Thank you to everyone who bought the jewellery and the mandalas.
Once again Bridgend Soroptimists made a donation to Pipal Tree which thanks to The Big Give Women and Girls Match Fund was doubled in value. This receipt shows our donation – thank you to everyone who bought jewellery and mandalas.
Our donation will help support the education of girls in Madhesh Province, south Nepal. Girls like sixteen-year-old Binita Mahara, pictured here. Binita is a sixteen-year-old girl living with a disability (she was born with one eye) who this year successfully passed the very challenging Secondary Education Examination (SEE – equivalent to GCSE).
This is a remarkable achievement for a girl who lives in a flimsy hut in rural south Nepal, her parents impoverished day labourers. Without our support, this would be the end of Binita’s education and of her prospects in life; because of the stigma associated disability within Nepalese culture, she has little chance of getting married.
However, last month Pipal Tree intervened and awarded Binita and fifteen other young people – nine girls and seven boys – educational bursaries that will allow them to go to college and progress to the next stage, which equates to ‘A’ levels in the UK. If they complete this higher secondary education, their chances of finding gainful employment or of entering further education will be very good.
A bursary works out at £640 per academic year, most of this paid directly to the school to cover educational fees. The total amount raised by Pipal Tree during the campaign means that they are able to:
- Fund a total of 23 bursaries
- Pay for ten female tutors at our Community Learning Centres (£70 per month)
- Cover the production costs of 300 school rucksacks and 200 packs of reusable sanitary pads. These are made by young deaf women at the Lily’s Leaves social enterprise production centre and will be distributed free to low-caste children.
Bridgend Soroptimists are proud to continue their long association with Pipal Tree and to help make such a significant impact on girls’ education.