(audience clapping)
- My name is Kiran Sahu,
and I am tenth grade at Prerna Girls School.
I played Laxmi Nishad in the film.
When we were making the film
you just saw I did not feel like I was acting.
I feel like it was my own life.
I also lost a parent.
In my case, it was my father.
I have a brother who can not stand
to see me to go to school.
He burned my books, uniform,
when I was thirteen,
and he pulled me out of school five times.
But my mother, always with me,
and supporting me,
and today I can proudly say that
much like Laxmi,
I am the most educated person
in my family.
(enthusiastic applause)
Thank you.
To most people, Prerna is just a school
but for me, it has been a home.
Every time I forced to leave
they always took me back.
In Prerna, I have safe space to talk
about myself, my life, my problems,
my world, and my place in it.
I had never talked with anyone
about these things before.
Not even my mother.
My teachers are caring.
They listen to me and support me,
and this has given me courage and confidence
to take control and change my life.
Now, I make my own decisions.
Prerna also-- (audience applauds)
Prerna also helped me realize that
I can be anything I want to be.
Education has changed my life.
I believe that all girls should fight to get an education
and every school should be like Prerna
and support girls.
Prerna has given me a dream
to be a police officer and I proved
that my brother can,
that girls can run the world.
Thank you. (audience applauds)
- Good morning everyone.
My name is Laxmi Nishad
and I graduated from Prerna Girls in 2012.
This film makes me look my,
this film makes me look my life with fondness and pain.
Today I want to share what kept me going.
Many girls in my neighborhood
did not go to school.
I was almost one of them,
but even the girls who did not end up like me,
the difference was my school, Prerna.
Unlike others, my school cared for me.
They cared if I was happy,
if I was fed.
Even after losing my mother at thirteen,
I had a mother in each one of my teacher
and most of all, in Du-rish-ianti,
who was my mentor and the leader of the Study Hall
Education Foundation which support young women like me.
At the school I was given respect.
I learned that my words carry meaning and power.
Education did change my life
but not in the traditional sense.
It was a kind of education
that Prerna gave me truly transform me.
While my father sold my books to buy alcohol,
my school taught me
to respect myself and fight for my life.
It taught me to deserve a home
and I have a right to it.
I see Kiran, I see how my sister's
life is so different from mine.
They all have an education.
I see Kiran,
she facing similar struggles
but also with more aspiration and strength
and I grew to share my story with everyone
not because I feel
that it is unique, but sadly, because it is not.
I hope that my story will give strength
to girls around the world.
(audience applause)
- Good Morning, I'm Urvashi Sahni,
the founder of Study Hall Education Foundation,
and the Prerna School.
(audience applauds enthusiastically)
I didn't want to be a girl when I was growing up,
and neither did many girls,
and it's not hard to see why.
In India most many girls do not feel safe,
wanted, free, or equal.
Nearly a million girls killed in the womb
due to sex-selective abortions,
high rates of domestic violence,
four rapes an hour,
and one-third of the world's child brides,
let's call them girl-slaves, are in India.
Like everyone else, I believe that education is
the solution, which is why I founded
the Study Hall Education Foundation and Prerna School.
But I learned in my work with Prerna
that though education is a very powerful social
and personally transformative force,
it's not just any kind of education.
Education, to be transformative, must be transformed.
We learned in Prerna that if school is to
change girls' lives then it must provide a safe,
caring space and it must teach girls lessons
of equality along with lessons of math and science.
We teach our girls that they are equal persons
deserving respect and they have the right to
a life of their own choosing and thriving.
(audience applauds)
And it is with these lessons that you can see
that they have navigated, negotiated and forged
a pathway for themselves and their families
through a very inhospitable and challenging social terrain.
We also teach our boys,
we started working with them recently,
the same lessons of equality.
That though patriarchy is not their fault,
it does give them more power and privilege,
and it is very cruel to their sisters, their mothers,
and all the women that they care about.
So we teach them.
(audience applauds)
A different way of being good men.
And they are working alongside their sisters,
supporting them and fighting for their rights with them.
We are thrilled to be a part of the Global Girls Alliance,
and I know that our teachers,
boys, and girls, together,
we will build a beautiful, just, fair,
peaceful and loving world.
Thank you.
(audience applauds)