Become a teacher instead of a cleaner

 

Become a teacher or secretary instead of a cleaner. That lies ahead for the Indian girls who go to school with the help of Margreeth Kuipers. There are six so far, but the intention is for more to follow. Margreeth finances the girls’ education through the sale of very special products from Peru and India. This concerns ponchos, scarves, plaids, body warmers, decorative and utensils, all handmade or woven in a traditional way, with very exclusive, natural materials. All profits from her company Sits for Women are intended for school-age girls.

How did you end up in India?
My husband is a commercial pilot. I really wanted to go to India one day. He was not enthusiastic about that: I couldn’t stand seeing so much poverty. He was able to hold me back for two years, but then I boarded a plane to India. That first time was a profound experience. I walked out of the hall of the airport, went outside and in no time I was surrounded by a huge amount of children. Children who were marked by poverty. As a nurse, I immediately saw what was going on with several of them. My husband, who had already walked ahead, came back, took me by the arm and pulled me out of the crowd of children.

You visited the slums, how did you end up there?
I visited the city of Gurgaon, one of the fastest growing industrial cities in India, with large industries and multinationals. Companies that take full advantage of very cheap labor. People from rural areas flock there in large numbers in the hope of a better future. The slums on the outskirts of the city are overcrowded. I was once allowed to shadow a doctor who provides free medical care there every Sunday. You have probably seen images on television. It’s even more shocking to actually be there. People live with many family members in a very small space. Before you enter a home you have to step over the open sewer. The people have virtually nothing, it is musty and dirty, and of course there is no garbage collection service. It is usually the mothers who work. To give an idea: they earn 3500 rupees a month as a housekeeper. That is equivalent to 45 euros. They have already spent 2,500 rupees on rent. In order to be able to eat, they often forego electricity, which costs 500 rupees per month.

And do children from the slums not go to school at all?
The children can go to the Government School. But the conditions there are bad. With 50 children they use a room of 3.5 by 2.5 meters with a small window with bars in front. Usually there are no chairs, often not even a teacher. There are hardly any textbooks. The private schools for the rich obviously look very different, with all kinds of sports facilities, polo horses and lots of luxury. But that is an inaccessible station for children from the slums. So without help, they don’t get a good education.

Why do you want to help girls go to school?
Empowerment is a modern word for ‘enabling’: gaining more control over their own situation in order to escape poverty. As a woman you are nothing there, especially if you belong to the lowest caste. When you help a girl, you help her entire family. By supporting the weakest link, you lift up the entire family. Because girls who go to school teach their brothers and sisters to read and write and help their parents with arithmetic. And they can build an independent future themselves. A condition for participating in this project is that the girls are not married off as long as they go to school. Otherwise you will lose them at the age of 11 or 12. I agree on this with the parents.

The condition is that they are not married off, but what else do you look at before you make such an offer to a girl and her parents?
To begin with, the families must have a permanent place to live, otherwise going to school will not do much. It is also important that both girls and parents can handle this mentally. I look at a girl’s personality: is she eager to learn, is she strong enough, does she want this and can she handle the pressure? Because the expectations that a school-going girl raises among family members can weigh heavily. You have to be able to handle that. And the parents really need to stand behind their daughter and support her.

Six girls are going to school now, how are they doing? And what is their perspective when they leave school?
The girls live up to it, but so do the mothers and the family. It concerns two girls aged five and six at a school, and four slightly older girls aged 11 and 12. The youngest girls go to a different school than the oldest girls. The older girls had to enter a few levels lower because, due to the lack of good education so far, they naturally had a learning disadvantage. They now go to good schools. I visit them twice a year to see if everything is going well. And I keep direct contact with education via Skype. The great thing is that they will soon be able to do more than just become a cleaner. For example, they can become a teacher or secretary. Perhaps further education is an option, and I want to support them in that too.

We all read newspapers. It is not safe for women to travel in India. How do the girls go to school? And how do you do that yourself?
I actually walk down the street alone, of course as a woman you have to be careful. I will never get on a bus, it’s unsafe. I often take the tuk tuk, you can always jump off. Sometimes I also think when I walk in the dark in a remote place at night: what have I gotten myself into? The street is not only unsafe for women, but certainly also for children. The young girls go to school by school bus, but one of the fathers takes them to the bus stop by bicycle riksha. The other girls are taken to school on foot by their parents. Going to school independently is really not an option: children here are often kidnapped, abused and used for begging. About thirty thousand children disappear in India every year. Only a third of these are ultimately found.

What impressed you the most?
When one of the mothers heard that it was her daughter who was given the opportunity to go to school, she started to cry heartbreakingly. She knelt in front of me and started kissing my feet. I reflexively stepped back because it made me uncomfortable. I explained to her that I would rather hug her. That we are equal. That I am also ‘just a mother’. I had some difficulty with the cultural differences at the time. But I felt her emotion down to my toes. I felt the hope and disbelief of the mothers that their daughters might now have a better future after all. A future they can never give their daughters. It touched me deeply. Perhaps because it is so recognizable. Because religion, culture, poor or rich make no difference to mothers all over the world when it comes to their children. Mothers only want one thing: a good future for their children. That communal feeling blurs all boundaries. That is wonderful to experience. And that also means that we really do this together.

You would like to help even more girls go to school in the future. How do you finance that?
The financial basis for this project comes from my company Sits for Women. From India and Peru I import very special clothing, jewelry and other products made by women. I pay them directly, without intermediary, they get a good price for it. They use the most beautiful fabrics and materials such as cashmere, pima cotton, baby apalca capes. I sell these products through my webshop and special events and fairs. I prefer to give a presentation and sell at people’s homes so that I can also tell my story. You understand: these are not cheap products. But I try to price it so competitively that it is also accessible to people with a middle income. I paid for the school attendance of the first four girls myself. People who come to my website and are considering purchasing something can now immediately read and see what it means for these girls to be able to go to school. When you know that your money is going there, it gives you an extra good feeling to buy such a beautiful product. I am also financially supported by the Rotary Club and the Lions Club, and I am of course very happy with that.

What gives you the most pleasure?
Ayushi, one of the younger girls, was very introverted when I met her. But we got a radiant child in return. She often wins prizes at school because she does so well at school. Those erasers and pencils all go into an unsightly tin at home. She proudly shows this to me when I visit. Those are beautiful and moving moments.