Zeenat Khan is a ten year old girl who belongs to a completely uneducated family. Zeenat was enrolled at the IIMPACT learning centre ‘Deepak’ in Rajasthan.

It is Zeenat who has helped introduce the light of education into her household and has now made education an integral part of the family members’ lives. Zeenat’s positive outlook was not always previously to be seen.  In the early days at the centre,  Zeenat’s attendance proved to be irregular and her attitude towards work a bit tardy. Upon delving into her background and family history her teacher- Om Prakash- found that though Zeenat herself was actually very keen to gain from education, the rest of her 7 member, completely illiterate family did not think education was important enough for anyone (particularly a girl ) to neglect her household chores.. Rather it was felt that education would come in the way of housework and of the well being of the family at large.

Zeenat’s family had never considered education as an option since this was an idea completely foreign to them. Despite the teacher’s many secret reservations about being able to successfully convince this family to allow Zeenat to make the Learning Centre a part of her daily life, .the teacher remained persistent. He involved the local community members to help try and convince the parents about the importance of education and to explain to them that it could in fact change their lives forever.

These external efforts not only succeeded in making Zeenat even more determined to study in the face of opposition within her family, but finally also got the parents and other siblings to see the relevance of what Zeenat was trying to be part of.   Now Zeenat not only goes regularly to school but also carries back homework with her. By the dint of her hard work and sheer determination Zeenat has within a time frame of 2 years and 7 months managed to successfully complete the class 5 exams and has now  moved on to class 6 in the local government school. As a result of this influence her 2 younger brothers have enrolled in the local school and her parents are now convinced about the significance of education within every family.  Her parents recognize the fact if Zeenat had not been so adamant about going to school her entire family would have remained in darkness.