The following story can be summed up in a single expression – Dogged Determination.
Manju, 23, resides at Buribana with her parents and five siblings. Her house being four km away from B2R Letibunga centre, she prefers to come by foot and sometimes takes a bus. When she works in the day shift, she leaves home at 7:00AM to reach the centre by 8.00 AM and at 3.30 PM to reach for the night shift. It’s almost going to be one year, since she joined.
She has only completed her education till 12th standard with Arts. “English was my favorite subject in school”, she recalls with nostalgia. She loved reading different stories and poems. She began her Graduation in Arts, right after schooling ended. As luck would have it, she couldn’t continue further and had to abandon further studies within a year. “There was work at home, and the escalating money issues made me drop out from college and look for a job”, she sighs. Her marks were also sliding down, she shared, disappointment evident in her tone.
Things have been mighty hard for Manju, she applied and gave the entrance test at B2R but couldn’t qualify. Though, filled with despair, she didn’t give up. “I worked for another organization named Chirag for 3-4 years and then tried at B2R again. This time I cleared”, she states with satisfaction. Here at B2R she works as an executive and delivers work for a Global Fortune 500 client. Image retouch, creating path, cropping and color correction are some of the tasks that she works on. Exposure to advanced technology and training on Mac machines helped her gain the necessary process knowledge.
“My parents allow me to work at B2R because it is nearby and also because my sister works here”, she says. She wanted to do something different, taking time to decide while she pursued her graduation. However, life had other plans. She works hard to assist her family with expenses. She works with a hope that her children will not have to compromise their education for lack of money.