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When Sangeeta's father died, she was still a child. Her family was down to three: a mother, Kumari Singh, a younger brother and herself. To earn two square meals a day, Sangeeta picked up a sickle and worked in the fields beside her mother, under the summer sun. Her mother still dreamt of a good education for her daughter.
That dream found a door when Sangeeta was selected for Sewa Bharati's girls' hostel, Udaan, in Ujjain. She joined in the sixth grade, with free education, a place to stay and meals. She went on to pass 12th grade in the Biology stream and earned a nursing degree, and today she supports her family with dignity.
How Udaan began
Udaan opened in 2007 with 36 girls. Its superintendent, Ms. Preeti Telang, a full-time volunteer, remembers those first days. Since then about 240 girls have passed out of the hostel, and many now hold government posts. They have become teachers, engineers, officers, A.N.M. and G.N.M. nurses, patwaris and lecturers, and some are skilled homemakers.
The girls of the tribal areas around Ujjain face heavy odds, and Sewa Bharati's regional organising secretary, Mr. Ramendra, traces many of those problems to a lack of education. The hostel building was made possible by land donated by the family of the late Shri Dattatreya Vishvanayakji and funds from the family of the late Shri Jagmohan Singh.
Who gets a place
Preference goes to orphans, children of single parents and children from economically weak families. Community members, working with local full-time volunteers of the Sangh, identify needy girls from about ten nearby towns, and the chosen children join in the sixth grade.
Two girls who rose
Maneesha Bamaniya never scored below 90 percent in any class, despite hardship at home, and later became the Postmaster of Bagli tehsil in Dewas district. Reena Mujalde completed 12th grade at the hostel and became an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Khandwa University.
Udaan shows what a hostel can be when it offers more than a roof: a place where a girl's dream is taken seriously.
This story is adapted from the Parivartan Yatra series on Sewagatha. Read the original: sewagatha.org.