Kushboo was born into a poor family in Lucknow, India. Her mother died when she was two years old. Her father remarried but when her stepmother also died, Kushboo, as the eldest daughter, had to drop out of school in second grade to  clean the house, cook, and look after her younger siblings.  But she was determined to go to school and insisted with her daily cries, I want to study, I want to study. Her father violently opposed, beat her without mercy, and finally threw her out of the house.  My whole body was black and blue. I sometimes feel that if I hadn’t gained consciousness the next day, he might have burned me alive because he was convinced nobody could touch him,” Kushboo recalls.

 Her grandmother took her in and so did Prerna Girls School nearby, a school supported by Mona Foundation. There she flourished despite her dire circumstances and today she has a master’s degree in women studies and will be pursuing a PhD next.

With COVID19 and the school closures and remembering how education has transformed her own life, she has decided to be become a Digital Activist to ensure that our most vulnerable kids continue with their education. The children in urban slums of Lucknow do not have access to smartphones and the internet. Kushboo has a smart phone and she is using it to deliver instruction to 11 children from her slum neighborhood leveraging the lessons available on line. The children love their 2 hour morning session with Kushboo and come to her home with pencil, paper and small handkerchiefs to cover their faces. Leveraging WhatsApp, she receives the assignments, instructions and mentoring from the Prerna teachers and then delivers them to a multi grade classroom in her courtyard.

In her own words: This lock down has kept the children away from their schools. They miss their classes and their friends. Unlike children from rich families they do not have access to smartphones, laptops and the internet. They cannot do online classes. Seeing them doing nothing during lock down I decided to share my smartphone with them to help them continue with their education. It’s been a joy for me to fulfill my long unfulfilled dream of being a teacher.

The MONA Foundation is there to help girls like Kushboo.  Check it out.