Editor’s Note: This blog is extra special to us and we hope you enjoy the story of our experience visiting the Kripalu School in India. This all girls school is an educational sanctuary that teaches future generations of women to have a choice in the world. All too often, girls are sold to other families or sold into child marriage and never have a chance to educate themselves and make choices for themselves. In March 2016, we had the opportunity to team up with Concepts TV Productions to produce a pro-bono advertisement on the importance of education for the Kripalu School. We went there hoping to make a difference in the lives of these girls. What we didn’t expect was the change that these girls would bring to our lives in return. This blog was originally posted on the Concepts TV Blog.

Most of us have seen the advertisements on TV with doe-eyed children, staring into the camera, begging for your mercy and your help. Or perhaps you’ve heard the melody of Sarah McLaughlin and the dying breeds of poverty stricken animals around the world. These stories tear at your heart and beckon your soul to make a difference in the world; but two minutes later, you change the channel and go back to your life of normality, forgetting about the less fortunate and getting caught up in your own problems. Your boss emails, your significant other calls you, and you’re back into your own world, forgetting about all of those in the world that are less fortunate.

Having been born in America was a lucky draw of the straws. We were born with running water, a roof over our heads, access to medical help, a loving family, and most importantly, a public education system that provided free schooling. We grew up being told we could be whatever we wanted when we grew up. For so many in the world, they don’t have that luxury. They don’t even have a chance or a choice. So many young children know a future of slavery, child-marriage, and poverty. As an American, that world seemed so far away to us, until we visited the Kripalu School in Kunda, India. That visit to the Kripalu School changed the way we will look at the world forever.

We learned of the Kripalu School through work colleagues, who spoke of a school that was changing the way women are educated in India. We put together our television production team to fly to India and film a pro-bono advertisement to raise awareness and funds for this donation-funded school in India. We knew we were going to help a worthy cause, but we didn’t realize just how much this school was changing the future of the entire Indian populations for the better. We saw firsthand that an education and only an education would provide these women the knowledge, the safety, the empowerment, and the strength to end a cycle of submissiveness and despair.

For the full article featured on the Concepts TV blog, click here!