Anshu Mahato
Peer Group Leader
July 2019
Anshu Mahato is studying in class 9 and has a younger brother, a younger sister and an elder sister. All sisters are class toppers in their classes including her. Her mother is a primary school teacher and is a single mother. She always puts education before everything else. Five out of sixty students from her schools were selected as the Peer Group Leader (PGL) of English and Digital for Girls Education Project.
“My mother was happy about my selection and told me to learn as much I can from the training. She just has an undergraduate degree, but she encourages all of us to pursue our studies. She wants me to become a staff nurse after my schooling”.
“I am learning a lot from this training. I have never used a computer before but now I feel comfortable using PowerPoint, Excel and writing in World Documents. I have never seen flash cards before but now I have learnt from it and know how to use it in a class. I have learnt about social skill too. All the things I have learned from the training, I am confident that I can implement it in the same way in the clubs which I will be running in my school. This training helped me to improve my English, but it is not enough, I still need to work hard and find other ways of improving it; like reading books whenever possible and referring to the dictionary whenever I come across difficult words”.
“Not all girls in my village are fortunate to access learning opportunities. Through this club, even if I can pass on little knowledge, that will be good for them. I am proud that now I am a Peer Group Leader. I can now train other girls in the same way I am trained here. I will help them in their English, Digital and Social Skills”.
According to UNFPA, in Nepal, 41 percent of women aged 20 to 24 are married before they turn 18. Nepal has the third highest child marriage prevalence in South Asia. The Government of Nepal recently endorsed a new National Strategy on Ending Child Marriage and has set the legal age of marriage at 20 to discourage early marriages but it is still prevalent. In Parsa/Province 2 where the project is implemented, only 10.8% of girls’ population goes to school, out of which only 20% reaches the higher secondary level despite 136.8% enrollment in the basic/primary level.
In such a scenario, Anushu is amongst the fortunate few to get full support from her family to pursue her education and follow a career path towards becoming a staff nurse. She thinks, her selection as a Peer Group Leader in the EDGE project will expand her learning horizon and help her to pursue her dream.
