Fueling her ambitions

Vandana is a girl with a dream. She has been coming to the library at the Pratham Hub Center for over a year now. Her devotion to education is inspiring: every day she wakes up at 5:30 in order to be at school by 6:00 where she is in sixth grade, and then right after school, she comes straight to the library. Her sisters used to come along with her, but as she says, they were too tired to come, but Vandana’s devotion never wavered.

As soon as she arrives at the library, Vandana and her supervisor collect the other seven girls who attend the library with her. Their community is very tight-knit where not only do the girls attend the library together but they also dance together and in a couple days will be going on a field trip to the Indian Cultural Center with the supervisor from the library.

Vandana is also extremely supportive of her classmates at the library. When they all sit down, she will pick out seven books, one for each of her friends; when anyone is struggling to keep up, Vandana will be right by their side because, as her teacher says, Vandana has read every book they have in the library. Vandana’s favorite class in school is English, and through her time at the library, she has excelled in both reading and writing in English.

When she is older, she wants to move to America and work as a doctor and artist. Her favorite pastime is drawing; often as the other girls in the library are reading, Vandana will pick up one of the books that she has already read, pick a picture from the pages, and create her own version of the illustration. Her masterpieces are hung up around the Hub Center, and her mother and library supervisor have encouraged her to enter a local painting contest for children. Bright Vandana has many ambitions and the community at Pratham has helped her thrive to make those dreams come true.

Thank you all for supporting Vandana in pursuing her dreams