Rabia’s Story
Name: Rabia
Age: 13
Prospective Occupation: Teacher
Funds Needed: $2,000
Rabia is #4 in her class, is very tiny in stature and incredibly sweet. She has 5 brothers and sisters, 3 younger (ages 8, 6 and 4) and 2 older (ages 20 and 24 who are only in 8th and 10th grade in government school). Her mother passed away and she lives with her father and grandfather. Her father is a carpenter. She has often missed weeks of school at a time due to not being able to pay school fees. Rabia’s favorite subject is history and her goal is to become a university professor. She says her talent is to teach people by helping them understand and perform well in class like she does. Rabia hopes that by becoming a university professor she can “help others to fulfill their dreams of what they want to be if they finish their studies so they can help their parents and young brothers and sisters and other children who don’t have parents.”
Rabia most admires her father because “he is a kind person, he loves people, and he likes to share different ideas with his family.” She also admires her sister who helps her with her studies, her younger brother for listening to elders, her older brother who helps her grandfather in the farm digging the land, and her younger sister because she performs well in school.
Rabia said she has “faced many problems in life like missing school fees, uniforms, shoes and books.” In her application, she wrote: “My family was not happy when they see me return back home because of school fees. I would stay home 5 days or one week until my father could collect enough money and I returned back to school. Our family all the time we were sad because we don’t have enough money like other families. Sometimes if my father doesn’t get money we use to stay without eating. Until the other day if my father gets the money we eat and pray for him to continue struggling hard. But I thank God up to now we have good health although our family is all the time sad I will continue to pray until our family will be happy.”
