World Education helped Sharadha transition back to school from her job in a brick factory. Now she is in grade seven, and hopes to become a nurse.
Each year, Nepal’s brick factories produce more than 5 million bricks – a number that has ballooned to enable reconstruction projects following the April 2015 earthquake. Increasing numbers of men, women and children find themselves in inescapable indebtedness, borrowing money to make ends meet in the immediate term in exchange for future work.
World Education Nepal’s Building Better Futures Initiative supports brick factory workers to break cycles of exploitative labor and overcome the oppressive conditions of intense manual labor and mistreatment they often experience. Using a holistic approach, World Education Nepal educates brick workers’ children, expands livelihood options and provides financial services to empower families to pursue new options for income generation. The Building Better Futures Initiative holds livelihood trainings and school enrollment so that hundreds of people like Shanti and Sharadha, whose stories you can read in this World Education photo story, are not resigned to a fate of dangerous labor in the brick factories. Join us in celebrating their achievements.