Recently my husband and I travelled to India to visit our 19
year old daughter who was working at a school in southern India among children
and teens from leprosy colonies and poor villages. Our daughter had visited
India as a volunteer with Rising Star Outreach in February of 2013, had fallen
in love with the children she worked with and had decided to stay long term.

Women in India have traditionally been considered citizens of low importance, with few rights and protections. Violence against women has been widespread and prevalent. Ultrasound technology is illegal in India for pregnant women because of the practice of gender selection through illegal abortion.
Law makers in
India are responding to the increasing world awareness of the inequalities
under which Indian women subsist--with legislation such as tighter sexual
assault laws, new company law which mandates at least one woman serving on the
board of listed companies, and national observance
of the International Day of the Girl Child.
In northern India women seem to have
broken free of some of the more restrictive traditions, but in the south the
women still adhere to the old ways, such as arranged marriages for young teenagers,
wearing the sari from the day they are married and being expected to perform
hard physical labor. The girls attending the Peery Matriculation School hail
from even more depressed circumstances; in the caste system they are at the
bottom--untouchable because of the taint of leprosy in their families. Without
intervention their fate is most likely a life of field work and repression.

Last
year there were five girls who graduated from the 10th standard, and all did
well enough on their state testing to matriculate to one of the very best
Indian schools at the junior college level. It was a true triumph for the Peery
School, and a fulfillment of the vision of Rising Star. My husband and I were
buoyed by the efforts being made both at Rising Star and throughout India to
raise women's situations and aspirations.
And my daughter who didn't want to continue with her
education? Something seemed to click when she saw the great sacrifices the
children and their families (not to mention Rising Star volunteers) make in
order to make sure that the children are educated: she is now enrolled in
college and working toward a degree in early childhood education. Her goal is
to enhance education for girls and boys around the world.
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