Home Visits
Home Visits:
In every village ENG travels to, home visits comprise a critical component of the overall program. Family and parents play a significant role in their children’s scholastic success, and interviewing the parents prior to granting a scholarship is part of the criteria for inclusion in the program. Beyond providing a stable studying environment, parents are forced to contend with other obstacles which could include early marriage proposals, help in working the fields or day labor, or even the money from selling their child in sex slavery. Despite how unpalatable those options may seem, desperate parents may feel they have to resort to these short-term measures, foregoing the lifetime benefits and familial equality education confers to their daughters.
Home visits serve to reinforce with the parents, family, and surrounding community, the responsibility and privilege these young girls have earned with their scholarships, and recurring home visits are an annual reminder that many individuals, beyond the parents, are invested and devoted to the long term success of these young women. Sitting here, among these families, you understand the importance the scholarships play in the role of the girls and their family. By providing financial assistance and school supplies for these girls, ENG helps these families in navigating the difficult decision of educating their daughters and impacting the welfare of their family. For me, it’s powerful to understand that the scholarships ENG provide benefit not only the girls, but have an effect now, and in the future, in the well-being of their home life and families!