Sahi (4/30/15)

Sahi (DOB: 4/30/15) has a strong desire to go to school. He enjoys learning and is quite popular. He plays soccer very well and loves singing. Sahi has four older sisters and an older brother. People see Sahi’s mother as very unfortunate as she has four daughters, which are unlucky in their culture. According to their beliefs a female child is a curse to a family, bringing poverty and bad luck. Even more, most of the girls in their community are not sent to school, including Sahi’s sisters. Sahi’s parents see him as their only hope. The child’s father is a sewage worker in the municipality and his mother works as a cook for a well to do family. Most of the time she does not get paid but instead is given vegetables for compensation. The family lives in a small single room without a separate kitchen or toilet. To use the bathroom, they go out into an open space, which is very inconvenient, unhygienic and unsafe - especially for the girls. With the parents current income, they are unable to meet their children’s basic needs.