A Journey to School: Balancing School and Work

Twelve-year-old Maria has to juggle her schoolwork with supporting her family.

“My mother is sick and our father abandoned us while I was still inside my mother's womb, so every morning I wake up at 4 a.m. to take some goods to the nearby market. I sell these things even before I get to school, as the money I earn is used to buy food for my family.”

Maria puts her needs after those of her mother and her siblings. As a result, she often attends school without eating breakfast and does not have a proper school uniform.

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A Journey to School: Maryuri's Story

Maryuri’s father was afraid that she would meet a boy at school, become pregnant, and drop out. Instead of discussing his fears with his daughter, he demanded that she drop out of school.


“My dad did not want me to go to school because several students age 13 and 14 had got married, fallen pregnant, and left school,” Maryuri says. “He believed I would do the same.”

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Journeys to school: Nepal

From poverty to slavery, Pramila, 15, from Nepal, has faced extreme challenges in going to school – and she’s seen far too many girls from her community suffer the same fate.

“Because of poverty, I have had many problems in keeping up my education,” says Pramila. “My family couldn’t afford the things you need for school, so my father decided to send me to work as a kamalari.”

A kamalari is a child servant - Pramila agreed to go as her ‘master’ had promised to send her to school. But things did not work out that way. “It was the opposite of what I expected. I was enrolled at school, but couldn’t study,” says Pramila. And things took a turn for the worse when she fell ill. “At one point I had to return home because I caught pneumonia.”

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A Journey to School in Photographs

When Sylvia's* father died, her mother remarried and Sylvia fell out of favor. Her situation was further complicated by the fact that her new father sees her as a burden–simply because she wants to go to school.

Sylvia's attends school in Idete Magezara, a four and a half mile walk from her home. She often makes this hour and a half walk twice a day–alone. Along her journey, she faces challenging weather and difficult terrain.

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A Journey to School: A Husband's Perspective

Mohammed, 25, faces ridicule from his community in Pakistan simply because his wife attends school. Mohammed believes that an education should be accessible to everyone–even women.

“Some people think there is no use having girls educated. Usually these are people who are not educated themselves and don’t understand the importance of it, so that’s why they don’t send their wives to school,” he says.

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