Taking Attendance
Every charity: water storytelling trip had a shot list, which is a list of the stories we’d ideally find and help share. This is not one of them.
Jui’s story was a surprise, and one I felt personally compelled to tell. I advocated to get it published in the way it deserved — building it out beyond a basic blog and incorporating multimedia elements — and I’m thrilled to share it with you today.
For the full experience, please read Jui’s story here.
Taking Attendance
For girls around the world, missing school isn’t always a choice — it’s a cycle.
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The clock on the dash reads 6:07 a.m. as we pull away from the guest house. For the first time on this trip to Bangladesh, we have the road almost entirely to ourselves. Aside from the toll booth attendants, the rest of Pirojpur is still waking up.
Even the sun has only stretched the first of its tendrils across the horizon. Fog still rests heavy on the trees and blankets the river. Every edge is blurred and anything at a distance is indistinguishable. It seems to say, “Today doesn’t know what it’s going to be.”
I can’t say the same for the girl we’re going to see. She knows exactly what she’s going to be — she told me yesterday. As I glance at the time again, I clock that she’s already been awake for at least an hour.
Her goals, her reality, and her determination have — until recently — left little room for rest.
Meet Jui
“I understand very well how much it hurts to get sick,” Jui reflected.
She sat across from me in a red plastic lawn chair. Hair pulled back. Orange orna around her neck to match her salwar kameez. The undercurrent of nerves at the start of the interview had dissipated and been replaced with a kind confidence. The story she told was one of dirty water.
The water, she explained, had caused a skin disease so severe that she spent seven days in the hospital. Her stay was accompanied by a regimen of medication and injections, and even when she was sent home, she faced another month of recovery. That meant even more time out of school. For an avid student like Jui, that side effect was one of the most painful.
“It took me almost one month to recover, so I missed school,” Jui shared. “I had to study under a lot of stress due to exams, but I still couldn’t do well.”
The skin disease was just one interruption to Jui’s education. Once a month, another threat came calling — for Jui and every other girl at school.
…
