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BALKHIS STORY

Posted on 10/09/2011 at 05:45PM

Being a girl in a developing country is rarely easy. Poverty often has a more destructive effect on girls, who are more easily excluded from education and therefore from remunerating activities. In some areas, cultural prejudices against girls minimise their chances to access a good education and escape poverty.

Balkhis

It takes the extraordinary willpower of a girl like Balkhis, and a little help from Aiducation, to break the cycle of poverty and start building future for girls in local communities.

Balkhis is the first child in her family. Her parents haven’t had a chance to attend school and have always lived in a rural area of Kenya with little opening to the outside world. Her father runs a small shop in Bomani, a town that suffered from bad harvest this year, and is now relying on government relief food for the survival of its villagers.

In the local community, it is the tradition that girls get married at a very early age. However Balkhis had decided otherwise. She and her parents were convinced that another future was possible, and the three of them shared the idea that education was the way forward. Balkhis’ mum got in contact with the Taadhib Muslim academy, which offers scholarships to Muslim girls. Balkhis immediately impressed the jury and was soon accepted in the scholarship programme for primary education.

Hardworking and passionate, Balkhis emerged among the very best in her last year at primary school. With increasing confidence in her own abilities, she decided that she will one day become a doctor, because she had seen too many people around her dying from preventable diseases. She wants to build hospitals in rural areas, launch vaccination campaigns, and “help people get medical services without struggling to come to towns”.

With such drive and passion, it came as no surprise to the Aiducation team that Balkhis quickly convinced an AiduMaker to allow her to pursue her studies into secondary school

Beatrice

Beatrice, her AiduMaker, works in a pharmaceutical company in Switzerland, and therefore was inspired to help Balkhis achieve her dream to become a medical doctor: “When I read Balkhis profile I was very impressed. She wants to become a doctor and her vision is not just to heal sick people but to also educate them on how to live a healthier life and prevent diseases. Such farsightedness from a 16 year old girl has impressed me very much. I have always been interested in medicine as well. I currently work at a healthcare company myself that aims to prevent and cure diseases.”

Congratulations to Balkhis and Beatrice!

Tags: Impact, AiduFellows


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