“Now I can raise my voice in front of 1,000 people”

When she was eight years old, Mou survived by keeping quiet. She didn’t have much choice.

“My family demoralized girls by asking, ‘Why are you talking so much?’” she reflects. “’You are a girl, so shut up.’”

Boys and men in her urban neighbourhood of Dhaka, Bangladesh, appeared to have total freedom. “They would harass us sexually,” says Mou, of her experiences walking down the street. There wasn’t much point in complaining. There would be no repercussions.

In the homes of Mou and her friends, scarcity meant tough choices for parents, whom tradition had predisposed to favour sons over daughters. “If the male child gets one egg at mealtime, the girl receives none,” Mou explains.

Something all her own

But when she was eight years old, something changed for Mou. A person in another country agreed to be her World Vision sponsor—and that person sent her a letter. Mou doesn’t share what was written on the pages. It almost didn’t matter. The letter’s power lay in the fact of its existence.

“When I received the letter from my sponsor for the first time, I was surprised and felt very happy,” she says. “I felt proud that someone was there, who was thinking about me and had concern about me.”

It would be the first of many letters she opened in the years to follow. Always, the writing was filled with care, interest and encouragement.

Concern for Dhaka’s girls

That first letter burst into Mou’s reality with a new kind of light. She was growing up in a city filled with garment factories (ready-made garments are the country’s top export) where concern for girls’ welfare was often placed below the need to feed the family.

Pulling daughters from school and sending them to work was fairly typical—a dangerous proposition, given the lack of safety standards in most workplaces. In 2013, Dhaka was the site of the infamous collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory . Most of the 1,110 workers buried under the rubble were girls and young women.

Thankfully, Mou never had to work at a garment factory. Mou's parents agreed to World Vision sponsorship for their daughter. Child sponsorship made life much safer for many girls in the community, who were able to keep studying instead of engaging in child labour.

“I got educational support which helped me continue my learning,” Mou says. By the time she turned 14, Mou was attending the equivalent of Grade 9 in her local school. Her interest in science was already taking root.

There’s no question that school can be empowering for girls around the world. Yet after a young life full of put-downs, reprimands and sexual harassment, the shyness born of self-preservation persisted for Mou. “I felt fearful talking with others,” she recalls.

“Now I can raise my voice”

But sponsorship has a way of providing safe spaces for girls’ voices to grow.

That same year, World Vision Bangladesh staff invited Mou to join one of their Child Forums in Dhaka. “I believe my change started at that point,” she reflects.

“They arranged an awareness session on the negative effects of child marriage and selected me to participate. That was my first experience joining a session and talking in front of about 25 people.”

And Mou didn’t have to find that voice alone. “My senior brother and sisters [peers in the group] encouraged me a lot by saying, ‘You can do it.’ Initially, I felt nervous. But gradually, I felt more confident.”

This was to be the first of many sessions Mou joined through her Child Forum. Not only did she have important things to say, but she also learned she discovered that she could lead—and lead well.

Helping raise awareness

It wasn’t just confidence Mou gained from the Child Forum, but critical thinking skills also. “Not only can I solve problems by identifying them … I can understand the wrong and the right,” says Mou. “To me, presenting the wrong and the right to people is a part of leadership. Work together and move forward together.”

From here, Mou participated in the “My Life, My Vision” course through World Vision Bangladesh, where children consider the things they’d like to achieve in life, then break down the steps needed to get there. Mou felt her natural and learned leadership skills peering through, as she lifted other children in her group.

The girl who’d been told what to do throughout childhood could now help others chart their own life paths.

“I’m now the organizing secretary of my child forum,” she says, with pride. “With others in my group, we executed a 5-ZERO campaign to raise awareness about child marriage and child labour, zero carbon and child malnutrition.

"We also work on getting children who’ve dropped out of school to return. We conduct rallies on issues such as Dengue prevention.”

“Girls can do everything”

As she approaches her 18th birthday, Mou is preparing to graduate from our sponsorship program. But that doesn’t mean she’ll step out alone. Not only does she have years’ of cherished letters from her sponsor, but she’s also got plenty of friends to partner with on future projects. And several mentors within World Vision Bangladesh.

Best of all, she knows her worth, her strengths and her vast potential as a community leader. What will be her advice for children she meets in the future?

“To the children who feel overlooked by society, I want to say, “’Keep on trying and one day you will become successful. Dedication never leaves a person behind. It’s the engine that leads to success.’”

And to the girls everywhere? “Girls can do everything. They can change the whole world.” ⁠Become a child sponsor