SAIPHAI GIRLS DORM

On April 21, 2014 we were thrilled to be in Saiphai to celebrate the opening of our first school! 576 children from pre-kindergarden to 10th grade started school on that day.
It was one of the most rewarding experiences of our lives.

This stately school located on the top of the mountain, has become the beacon of hope for this village. (See Project Completion).

We have just successfully completed a Campaign on Indiegogo raising $30,000 for the first building to house the first 30 girls of the $60,000 needed to build both dorms for at risk girls at the new Saiphai School.

The dorm will house 60 girls who live too far away to attend school. In this part of India, most of the parents have very limited or no schooling. They live hand to mouth. Their homes are huts made of bamboo and they make their living at various manual labor and agricultural work such as sugar cane harvesting and other things that they can gather and sell in the markets. The children in the family are a big part of surviving. Many of the kids become the heads of the house when the parents must go into the fields, sometimes for days or weeks at a time. They cook, clean and protect. If the kids have a chance to go to school, the parents usually need to make a choice between boys and girls. They usually pick the boys because the girls are considered property. Meaning that they are eventually going to be married off to another family, and become their property. Their rational is they should invest in the boys education because they will be around longer to help the family survive.

Another shocking trend that is happening in northeastern India is the targeting of village girls for human trafficking, i.e., sex trade. Since most of these parents are illiterate, traffickers will entice the girls with the allure of non-village life, and convince the families that their daughters will have more opportunities if they move to the city and get jobs as housemaids and nannies. They offer more money than the can make in the villages and promise that they will send money back to help the parents. The reality is that many of these girls are delivered into the hands of pimps in these cities and forced into the sex trade. This is something we have to stop. The Saiphia Girls Dorm will enable girls in remote villages to live at the Saiphai school. They will be away from the pressure put on them at home. This means they will be allowed to focus on studies, surrounded by other girls who also want to learn. Teachers, dorm parents and other adults will be there to help them learn. This will also keep them out of reach of these traffickers. They will have time to be kids.