Sapana’s smile has a tender gleam with a mischievous, yet innocent twinkle in her eyes. After all, she is just 12. 

But, Sapana is not a typically carefree adolescent, as she should be. While traveling to Gutu, I met her at a bus stand selling berries. She left her house at 6:00am and instead of going to school, she reached the market at 8:00am to sell chutra (berries) at 10 rupees a cup. She spent all day yesterday picking these tiny chutras from really thorny plants just so she can sell them to help her mom buy essential food items. Her mom is the sole caretaker of her and four other siblings. Turns out, her father is drunkard and does little to help out her family. This shy 12 yr old is missing school and will sit at the market for the whole day just so can make money to have food on her plate. While her brothers are happily attending school, she was given the responsibility to bring home money.

In Nepal, keeping girls in school beyond their adolescence years is nevertheless a major obstacle. From my observation during my time in Gutu, I realized girls’ education is not the ultimate priority for many families. For these families, their daughters are often needed to work in the rice fields, collect firewood, fetch water and finish household chores and in Sapana’s case, sell items in the market. Often times, many of these girls are forced to marry at an early age.

While staying in the village, I saw young girls with haunting eyes carrying around little babies while completing chores. I doubt some of these girls will ever enter the door to a secondary school classroom. 

Sapana is just a representative of hundreds of girls in her village. Girls like her do not understand the importance of education often find themselves as victims of child marriage. Sapana is a girl that you will see every day in Nepal but choose to disregard.

Yes, there are laws and organizations that are working to combat discrimination against children and there are lots of organizations that work for the betterment of child rights. However, it does not seem to be enough. Efforts needs to be put towards raising the self-esteem of children so that they can be the lead decision maker of their own lives and ensuring that  young girls like Sapana grow up educated, healthy and happy.  

 <\/p>

Sapana\u2019s smile has a tender gleam with a mischievous, yet innocent twinkle in her eyes. After all, she is just 12. <\/span><\/p>

But, Sapana is not a typically carefree adolescent, as she should be. While traveling to Gutu, I met her at a bus stand selling berries. She left her house at 6:00am and instead of going to school, she reached the market at 8:00am to sell chutra (berries) at 10 rupees a cup. She spent all day yesterday picking these tiny chutras from really thorny plants just so she can sell them to help her mom buy essential food items. Her mom is the sole caretaker of her and four other siblings. Turns out, her father is drunkard and does little to help out her family. This shy 12 yr old is missing school and will sit at the market for the whole day just so can make money to have food on her plate. While her brothers are happily attending school, she was given the responsibility to bring home money.<\/span><\/p>

In Nepal, keeping girls in school beyond their adolescence years is nevertheless a major obstacle. From my observation during my time in Gutu, I realized girls’ education is not the ultimate priority for many families. For these families, their daughters are often needed to work in the rice fields, collect firewood, fetch water and finish household chores and in Sapana\u2019s case, sell items in the market. Often times, many of these girls are forced to marry at an early age.<\/span><\/p>

While staying in the village, I saw young girls with haunting eyes carrying around little babies while completing chores. I doubt some of these girls will ever enter the door to a secondary school classroom. <\/span><\/p>

Sapana is just a representative of hundreds of girls in her village. Girls like her do not understand the importance of education often find themselves as victims of child marriage. Sapana is a girl that you will see every day in Nepal but choose to disregard.<\/span><\/p>

Yes, there are laws and organizations that are working to combat discrimination against children and there are lots of organizations that work for the betterment of child rights. However, it does not seem to be enough. Efforts needs to be put towards raising the self-esteem of children so that they can be the lead decision maker of their own lives and ensuring that  young girls like Sapana grow up educated, healthy and happy.  <\/span><\/p>\n”,”class”:””}]}]}[/content-builder]