Blog: Sylvia dreams of becoming a nurse

“My voice, our equal future”, is this year’s theme to celebrate the International Day of the Girl Child. This calls for us to emphasize on and promote a better world inspired by adolescent girls – energized and recognized, counted and invested in.

Oprah Winfrey once said, "When you educate a girl, you begin to change the face of a nation."

Moreover, education is seen as a basic human right and the Universal Declaration for Human Rights affirms that. For a girl child, education is linked to health, equity and most of all self-empowerment.

Sylvia is 12 years old and attends Aguru Elementary School in Madang District in Madang Province.

“I want to be a nurse when I grow up!” beamed an enthusiastic Sylvia when I sat down to interview her.

I found this striking coming from a girl in a rural setting where children are usually shy and reluctant to speak to new people. Compounded by high rates of female student dropouts attributed mainly to helping their parents with domestic duties, the manner in which she responded without hesitation and reservation and the light in her eyes when she blurted out her dreams was a clear indication of her determination to achieving them.

When asked how she was going to achieve her dream, Sylvia calmly stated: “I know I have to go to school and work hard to become a nurse”.

Sylvia is a diligent and committed member of her school’s reading club which is an initiative of World Vision’s Together for Education (T4E) Project aimed at improving the literacy and numeracy rates of early grade students.

Aguru Elementary School is one of the 325 intervention schools in the T4E Project footprint. The school has introduced numerous activities since T4Es Project inception in 2017, one of which is the reading clubs. The reading clubs encourage students to read more and to hopefully develop a passion for reading.

Sylvia’s father, Max, spoke so passionately about how the reading club has ignited Sylvia’s passion for reading.

“Sylvia was not so keen on reading, even school for that matter, I guess it was because she didn’t understand her work as she was unable to read. But after she started attending the reading club sessions after school and on Saturdays, we realised that she would always be up early and ready for school. It was as if she was being driven by a supernatural force. And this was all because she could now read and understand everything,” said Max.

Sylvia expressed her disappointment in the fact that classes and reading club sessions were called off during the outbreak of COVID-19. But nonetheless, she continued reading at home at any chance she got.

I observed Sylvia reading, and I could see the passion ignited in Sylvia’s eyes. It was obvious that when she read, the book opened up a new world and her imagination was the only limitation. She giggled in excitement as she read her favourite reading book “Me And My School”.

Aguru Elementary school reading club volunteer Ennesly said that despite the lockdown, children showed up in numbers when our reading club sessions resumed. He also pointed out that Sylvia is one of his outstanding participants. “Sylvia is a very eager learner. You can see that by the way she behaves in class and is always one of the first to raise her hand to lead the class in individual reading sessions”, Ennesly said.

Sylvia’s parents Max and Maggie expressed their sincere gratitude to World Vision for choosing Aguru Primary as an intervention school because they have witnessed firsthand the transformation in their daughter.

“Sylvia was not a keen student and did not know how to read, this was until the reading clubs were introduced and we saw a complete change in her attitude towards school. And for that I am very thankful. She is my eldest daughter so I know she will influence her younger siblings. Sylvia is a very determined child, she wants to become a nurse when she grows up, and with the help of the T4E Project and the reading club, and she can achieve her dream”, Maggie said.

The Together for Education project is supported by the Australian Government through the Papua New Guinea Australia partnership.

Story and pictures by Geraldine Kalabai