Prerana Pandurang Ghodake

Prerana was recommended to us by Aarti Naik, our contact in Mumbai, India. We’ll let Aarti tell you about Prerana and her family.

Inspiring story of Prerana’s mother:

Few years ago, in her childhood, Prerana’s mother came to Mumbai and she was staying with her relatives because her parents were very poor and they thought Prerana’s mother will able to take care by her relatives and also she will able to complete her school education. But all things went wrong after three years of schooling. Prerana’s mother became a school drop-out girl. Her relatives stopped her school in 4th std and they forced her to stay at home and then Prerana’s mother started to spend all the time in domestic work.

When Prerana’s mother reached at 17th years of her age, she went back to her small village, Aarni; it is based in Osmanabad district of Maharashtra state, India. By the next year Prerana’s mother got married to very poor family, so she started to work as farm worker. After the birth of Prerana and a boy child, some years later she came to Osmanabad city area to search work and to continue the education of Prerana in good school, but it was quite challenging to stay in city, so she went to small slum area which is close to Osmanabad city. Initially she started to work as domestic labor at homes of nearest surrounding rich communities.

Gradually after some days Prerana’s mother decided to start a small food and tea hotel near to hospital area, because she cooks food with delicious taste. Some days it was good response to her small food and tea hotel but unfortunately there were another some people who started new big hotel in the same area and then it become quite challenging to continue such small food and tea hotel, because now most of the customer started to go to new big hotel. Gradually such things badly affected on the Prerana’s mother’s small hotel. Now Prerana’s mother is getting very low earnings from her small food and tea hotel. So Prerana’s mother is struggling to pay the educational fees of school and other allied educational needs of Prerana.

Prerana’s father work as recorder of music and voices, but his earning is not enough to continue the education of Prerana and her younger brother. His earnings are occasional or seasonal. Currently on part-time basis, Prerana’s mother has started to work at hotel as support staff to main cook but this work is based on the seasonal demands of food and earning are very small amount.

During my communication with Prerana’s mother, she showed concern with fear that if such things will happen for long time, then she will not able to continue her daughters education in good quality school. She is looking for financial support to continue her daughter’s school education.

Prerana’s mother is very passionate about her daughter’s education. She said, ‘I did not get opportunity to complete my education but my daughter should not go through the same situations, she should get quality education and she should have bright future’. It was highly emotional and inspiring moments for me and I strongly feel that Prerana need to get kind support to continue her school education. Prerana’s mother has a dream that her daughter, Prerana, will become ‘doctor’ in future!

About Prerana  

Since one year, Prerana has been in touch with me; during the May, 2015, Prerana’s mother visited my SAKHI’s Girls Learning Center and here first time I got opportunity to meet a bright girl, Prerana personally! She is very good in her academic. She was so happy to go through all the teaching and learning material at Girls Learning Center.

Also she was very eager to read some interesting story books! It was really inspiring to see her eagerness and enthusiasm for reading books. So during last months, I continuously tried to provide different kind of story books to Prerana by post. I have observed that she is shy to express her in front of people and show low confidence in talking with others. But I strongly believe that Prerana is very bright girl and if she gets continuous opportunity to study in good quality school then she will have definitely bright future. Next year Prerana will enter into 5th std.

Why SAKHI gives priority to Prerana?

At SAKHI, I am giving priority to Prerana because of following reasons:

Prerana’s mother is passionate to educate her daughter in spite of all challenging situations of her life. She never gives up with situations. Currently she is going through the very worst situations. She wishes to complete the education of her daughter and son also; but at the same time due to continuous financial constraints; sometimes it become quite challenging to fulfill the educational needs of her daughter and son.

Prerana’s mother is hard-worker and she is trying her best to earn money through her work at small hotel. So in this regard, at SAKHI, I strongly feel that if Prerana’s mother gets financial support to her daughter’s education, it will be life-time investment for Prerana and also Prerana’s mother will able to give quality education to Prerana’s younger brother continuously.

We are absolutely delighted to be able to help Prerana continue her education. Her grades are stellar, all As and Bs, and she even sent us a little recording of her reading her letter to us, which we hope to be able to post here. For now, here is her letter to us and a few photos from Aarti. Welcome to ONE, Prerana!

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September, 2021

It is hard to believe how impressive this young lady is! It seems that she is unstoppable in her studies and in her work. We think the best way to update you on Prerna’s progress is to use the words of our contact Aarti.

Dear Christa, Prerna is continuously making hard efforts for her 10th-grade subjects studies. With the support of your financial support, Prerna will be able to pay the fees of her coaching class, especially to build her her knowledge and skills in Math and Science. Prerna needs to have coaching classes because school has just reopened in last week and she needs to complete her all studies for her final exam of 10th grade. Prerna needs a good quality laptop, it will be a long-term investment for her education. During this school closure, she learned many soft skills confidently. Her laptop will help to connect with her mentors and teachers regularly. She will be able to continue her school education more effectively by exploring online resources. Also, Prerna needs support for school uniforms, school bags, shoes, school fees, exam fees, school workbooks, and ongoing educational stationery for school classroom activities. Also, now she needs to repair her two-wheeler to reach out to her school every day. 

Along with her 10th grade studies, Prerna is contributing her valuable time and skills for creating inspiring audio stories for girls in slum and rural areas. Because of her valuable support to our initiative – Audio Storytelling Project, India, more than 500 teachers in rural areas are receiving these highly inspiring audio stories and more than 5000 girls and their family members are enjoying listing to her inspiring audio stories every day. During last 300 days, Prerna has created 300 audio stories! Also, Prerna is helping to lead an initiative – Girls Audio School in rural areas, it is helping more than 60 girls to imrpove their basic reading skills. 

http://sakhiforgirlseducation.org/audio-storytelling-project/  
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzr3CPaNG83Ptscs1QpuSGg/videos  (Audio Storytelling Project, India) 

http://sakhiforgirlseducation.org/girls-audio-school/  
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXxMcma27hOYc1nx_-jlVWQ/videos (Girls Audio School India) 

Dear Christa, I feel so proud to see the transformation in the personality of an inspiring girl – Prerna, specially during last 18 months. During the COVID-19 crisis situations, she courageously come ahead to educate girls in slums and rural areas through her inspiring audio stories, and today so many girls have bee inspired by her way of audio storytelling and girls in slums and rural areas are improving their basic reading skills more confidently. 

Prerna has aspirations to be Audio Engineer, and she has goal of her life to complete her higher education in US based university. In further journey of her life, she wish to invest her skills, knowledge and experiences to educate girls in rural areas with using audio recording technology more innovative ways. I hope you and One New Education USA will be always with Prerna to complete her school education and also to inspire, guide and support her to complete her higher education. 

We are overjoyed that she has found something she loves so much, and is doing so well at it. We can’t wait to see where she goes with all this, but we can only imagine good things for her.

Prerna recorded a wonderful audio letter for us, we hope you enjoy it!

January, 2021

Prerna has been studying in 9th Standard and using the Byju’s Learning App, which she says has really helped her a lot. We are so glad we could support her with those costs. She has been doing so much that it seems only the explanation of Aarti can really help everyone understand.

I am so proud to share that Prerna is our next generation changemaker! Now she is taking strong leadership to educate girls in slums and rural areas through her inspiring contribution to lead the following two major initiatives:

1. Audio Storytelling Project, India
Through WhatsApp – every day, more than 500 teachers are receiving inspiring audio stories, and more than 5000 girls and their family members are enjoying listening to these audio stories. You will find Prerna’s more than 200 audio stories.

She joined this initiative on 1st April 2020. During this coronavirus crisis, this is a great contribution by Prerna to all girls and their family members who were isolated at home due to continuous lockdown situations.

2. Rural Girls School
Prerna is continuously conducting Audio Storytelling and Recording workshops with girls in rural areas (5 villages) of Osmanabad district, Maharashtra, India. These workshops are helping girls to build basic reading skills with perfect pronunciation in English and also, it is improving their mother tongue. Now girls are learning to record their audio story with their own voices. More than 50 girls and 12 adolescent girls (young girl changemakers) improve their pronunciation skills by listening to the audio stories and other English conversation topics.

Prerna is in 9th standard. At this early age, she is doing great work and improving her English language daily. Her active involvement in such girls’ education initiatives helps her build her confidence in communication, decision-making, planning and problem solving, etc.

From 1st April 2020 to 31st December, I can see the transformation in her personality. She is always showing the eagerness to accept the challenges and move ahead more confidently; she is now an ideal girl for every girl in rural areas!

Dear Christa, Prerna has aspirations to become an “Audio Engineer,” and she would like to complete her higher education at the University of California, Berkeley. I hope this is the right university where she will able to achieve her goal to become Audio Engineer. I am trying my best to provide exposure and experiences through girls’ education initiatives.

Here I would like to kindly request that if you know a female – Audio Engineer – please kindly help Prerna connect with her. If Prerna connects with an inspiring mentor (a female audio engineer), I feel such a mentor will be a great support for Prerna’s future career aspirations. I always hope for the best!

I hope Prerna will get to connect with an inspiring mentor – a female – Audio Engineer soon!

We are so proud of Prerna for all that she is doing. Here is her most recent letter to us, and an audio recording of her reading the letter.

We wish her all the best for the upcoming year, and we have no doubt that she will excel in her 9th Standard exams. In the meantime, we’ll be looking to find a female audio engineer to communicate with her.

October, 2020

Prerana is going to enter 9th Standard, although her school is still not open. She will be studying online, and using Byju’s Learning App. This will require her to have a tablet, as well as access to internet and the classes offered by the program. The online classes will especially help bolster her progress while they wait for schools to reopen, which may not be soon given that India is just behind the United States in COVID cases. We hope that while Prerana is waiting to be back in her classroom that these online classes will help her stay optimistic and move forward. She wrote us a letter about studying online last year, and it definitely sounds like she’d rather be in class, but she’s excited to work with this program.

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July, 2020

Since April, Prerana has been involved in a wonderful project. She is recording stories for school children as part of a learning program during the pandemic. She is going to record 5,000 stories — one per day. And she has already recorded well over 100. The students receive the stories through WhatsApp, but they are also stored on YouTube. Some are in English, some in Hindi, and some in Marathi. You can find them on YouTube here, or on the Sakhi For Girls Education webpage.

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The girls have been studying with Aarti in their “digital school,” since schools in India have all closed down. They will be needing tablets and money for internet time, which we will be happy to provide, since it is a critical part of their education. Here is a video of one of Aarti’s students working on her tablet.

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February, 2020

Prerana needed a way to get safely to her music lessons, which are a long way from home, and she has to travel late in the day. So we helped with some funds and her mother found her a used “Scooty,” which she rides safely and happily to her classes.

In the video below Aarti took a video of her riding it in her neighborhood, and she clearly loves it!

Prerana has been taking music and singing lessons for a few years and she simply loves to sing. Aarti tells us she has been making a huge effort with her singing, and she is also taking English classes, so she can communicate with the board members who visit in a few years. She wants to be able to be understood in English, and share her music and singing skills. We are so excited to meet her one day and get to know her! According to Aarti, in this video Prerana is singing a traditional type of Hindustani song called a Tarana in a type of melody called a Raag Bhup. A Tarana is a type of composition in Hindustani classical vocal music in which certain words and syllables based on Persian and Arabic phonemes are rendered at a medium, fast, or very fast rate. The song does not necessarily have a meaning. We love watching her hand motions here and just sitting back and listening to her beautiful voice!

October, 2019

Prerana finished 7th Standard with really good grades from her previous year, and entered 8th Standard in September. All her marks were B-2 and above, which is just fantastic. She’s growing up so fast, and she is loving her singing and music classes. She was able to attend a script writing workshop and an audio recording workshop at The Girls’ Learning Center, and Aarti tells us she loved them and excelled, and also helped teach other girls in the workshops.

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She is still playing and loving the harmonium that we helped buy for her, and Aarti sent some videos of her practicing.

September, 2018

Prerana is now studying in 7th Standard, and we received some great recordings from her in both English and Hindi. Her voice is becoming so clear and developed, it’s really wonderful to hear!

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August, 2018

At year’s end, Prerana is doing very well in school, which is wonderful to see. Her grades are very good and she says she enjoys studying a lot. According to our contact, Aarti, Prerana is continuing her music class, and she is learning music and singing passionately with the support ‘harmonium’ instrument. Also, she recently got a certificate for her excellent performance in national language – Hindi. I am so happy to share that she also got a certificate from Akhil Bharatiya Gandharva Mahavidyalaya Mandal for her good performance in singing.

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We learned from Aarti that Prerana would like to continue learning on the harmonium, which will help her music and singing skills. The board of directors decided to pay for Prerana to be able to have her own so she can practice at home and really move forward with this skill that she loves so much.

Prerana’s letter to us expressed her love of school and of learning. We had to post her letter to us, in addition to the translation, because we just think it’s so beautiful! We are very grateful to Aarti for her translation, since it is not easy to find someone who can translate Hindi in Flagstaff, Arizona!

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May, 2017

Prerana finished her 5th Standard school year in amazing style! She received incredibly high grades, and an award for her speech-making, as Aarti puts it. She is doing so very well, and we are really proud of her. Her next school year, we will not only be paying for her school, but also for her to take singing lessons. After all, education is about more than school work! Congratulations on completing your 5th Standard levels, Prerana!

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Here are Prerana’s report cards for the end of the year. It’s pretty easy to see, even if you don’t read Hindi, that she is getting top marks!Her letter to us is translated below.

TRANSLATION:

My Dream of Life!

Hi!
My full name is Prerana Pandurang Ghodake. I have just given 5th standard exam. I am 11 years old. In my family, my grandmother, mother, father and a younger brother, we all are five members in my family.
Every day in early morning at 5.00 am my mother and father wake up and my father goes to work after finishing work at home. My mother helps my homework while completing her work at home. She prepares for me school and she goes to hotel for her work.
I belong to very poor family but I feel that completing my education is most important in my life, because without education there is not progress in life.
I like singing so much. I wish to continue my hobby of singing. I would like to be Collector! I would like to be good government officer and to help my poor people. I get inspirations from my parents and people who belongs to them.
I would like to be good person in this world. I am aware about my family’s poor condition and I would like to take education and I will become a good citizen in this society.
I face many challenges in my education. I do not have proper place for study. My home is very small and I always live in fear of snake and other insects.
Due to poor conditions, I face challenges to continue my hobbies like singing, swimming, and karate class.
Thank you so much.
Prerana

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January, 2017

Prerana did really well in her first semester! All her grades were in the top levels, which is wonderful! She wrote us a lovely letter, which we had to post, just so you can see her beautiful handwriting in Hindi.

TRANSLATION
Dear Christa,
Namaste!
My name is Prerana Pandurang Ghodake. I am studying in 5th standard at Girls Primary School. Because of your continuous support and inspiration, I am moving ahead with a lot of progress. I have hobbies of poem reading and singing. I feel in future I will have good career opportunities in the field of singing. Since my childhood, I am connected with music and singing, so I like so much to sing songs. I continuously participate in cultural programs at school and I get good response from my friends and teachers. If you can provide me opportunity to join singing class where I will get singing education, I will be so happy! It will give me a lot of inspiration!
I am looking for your kind support to me.
Yours Sincerely,
Prerana Ghodake

Prerana also sent us some recordings of her reciting poetry in English and Hindi, as well as a little welcome to us. After listening to her voice, it is clear she will do well in her singing classes, which we will be paying for next year. After all, education is about more than just the basics!

November, 2016

We received some really fun news from Aarti, that Prerana and her brother were picked to do voice overs for a short film about farmers and social issues in India. She sent us some pictures from the studio where they were dubbing the narration. What a great opportunity!

June, 2016

Prerana is off to a better school! Aarti sent us pictures of the things she bought for school. She says Prerana and her mother are very excited. So here is what a little girl in India buys to go to school (apparently, Angry Birds are everywhere!):

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