What happens when a girl learns her rights? Meet Nadeyli
Once, Nadeyli hated her parents. When she was small, home was not a happy place, or a safe one – her father only spoke to her if he was yelling, and she was often beaten, sometimes with a rod.
“They made me feel bad… maybe because they felt bad about why I was born,” she says. “Even though they didn't think that I could understand, the truth is that I did understand – and to this day, all his words, even his blows, are marked here.”
Growing up in Cochabamba, Bolivia, Nadeyli lived in a community where women were expected to stay silent, cook, care for children, and accept violence. As the years went by, Nadeyli was told so often that she was worthless that she began to believe it. She became shy and bitter. And though she knew deep inside that she was capable of just as much as the boys, most of the adults around her told her girls should stay in their place – and that place was behind the men.
But at age 12, things started to shift.
Her mother told her about a local gathering for teenagers. Curious, she went. “I said to myself, ‘What's going to happen? What are they doing here?’” she says. “And the truth is… I liked it. I said, ‘I think this is going to be my happy place’.”
The people at the World Vision-led youth initiative were different. They encouraged Nadeyli to dream big, work hard at school, and gave her a platform to share her ideas. She also learned about children’s rights – and that they were the same for boys and girls.
“Since I joined … my life has changed a lot,” she says. “I didn’t know I had rights… I learned everything that should not be done or how a family should grow happily.”
Just one year later, Nadeyli was elected president of the youth network. She went on to become vice-president of the Children’s Council of Cochabamba, where she and her peers successfully pushed for local laws protecting children from school-based abuse and ensuring fair transport for rural students.
But she is proudest of the change she sees in her own home.
She found the courage to tell her parents that there was a different way for their family to be, and over time, the situation in their home – and the way her parents speak to their children – has changed.
“I took the opportunity to tell my dad… women should be respected,” she says. “He wouldn’t listen. But I always insisted… and I think I insisted so much, he reflected. My dad has changed my family a lot.”
“Before, both my family – my dad – was very sexist. He’d say, why women? Women are only good for cooking.”
Today, Nadeyli is 18, studying at university, and the recipient of Cochabamba’s “Genoveva Rios” award for her work defending girls and women. She’s helped change her family – and now, she’s changing her community.
“I am very grateful to World Vision because it has given us great support to our community, not only here, but to many others,” says Nadeyli.
Right now, thousands of girls like Nadeyli are working to end the injustice that girls in their communities face – just because they are girls. Will you stand with them? With your sponsorship gift, you can help a girl and her community build a future where every child lives free from fear.
