Radhika 14, lives in a home-based carpet weaving community in Jaipur, India. Despite the fact she enjoyed being a student, she was forced to drop out of school, because her father could no longer afford the school fees after losing his job at a factory in Delhi during the COVID-19 pandemic. Radhika’s village is one of the 55 GoodWeave Child Friendly Communities in north India, and Seema, a GoodWeave community facilitator, noticed that Radhika was at-risk of child labor.

Photo caption: Rhadika at her village home.

Seema encouraged Radhika to attend classes at GoodWeave’s Motivation and Learning Camp (MLC) in her village. MLCs are designed to help children who are behind their age-appropriate learning levels to catch up and re-enter mainstream school. Radhika had a keen interest in continuing her classes and convinced her parents to re-enroll her and her sisters in the local government school.

Radhika says receiving an education is important for her and other girls’ to be independent. She wants to become a teacher or, maybe, a GoodWeave community facilitator. 

Photo credit: © GoodWeave International