Happy book birthday to MINA VS. THE MONSOON! Mina gets to meet the world today and we are so excited to hear back from readers around the world! ⚽️ ⚽️ ⚽️ To celebrate this weekend, we are shining a light on some amazing real-life Minas and cheering on organizations working to bring lasting change in the lives of girls and women from marginalized communities. Read on... ⚽️ Football to Eyeball ⚽️ In rural Bihar in India, in villages just like Mina's, a local eye hospital has been using soccer games to get girls to finish their schooling and train to become world-class optometrists. Founded in 2006, the Akhand Jyoti Eye Hospital runs a pioneering program called 'Football to Eyeball' for young girls just like Mina. Founder Mritunjay Tiwary needed trained staff in far-flung villages and he discovered the best resources were the women and girls of these villages. He persuaded families to send their girls to play soccer for an hour or so everyday, gradually coaxing them to finish school and sign up for vocational training, and finally offered the girls jobs at the hospital. Some of them have gone on to create successful careers in optometry, such as Ankita Raj, whose parents defied her grandfather's demand that she marry young, and enrolled her in the Football to Eyeball program. She now heads up the hospital’s pediatric ophthalmology department and is a teacher at the optometry school. Others have gone on to play soccer for Bihar and for the national team. ⚽️ ⚽️ ⚽️ Stories like these are the incredible inspiration behind MINA VS. THE MONSOON and we are honored to be able to showcase these powerful and positive examples of change from South Asia. To learn more about the Akhand Jyoti Eye Hospital and their program, visit - https://www.akhandjyoti.org/football-to-eyeball ⚽️ ⚽️ ⚽️ Photo Credit: Rohit Jain, 2016 (cropped) CC BY 2.0 ⚽️ ⚽️ ⚽️ #diversekidlit #diversebooks #indiebooks #kirkusstar #kirkusbestbooks2018 #diversereads #readyourworld #multiculturalbooks #booksforchange #girlpower #girlsoccer #soccergirl #rebelgirl #mightygirl #footballgirl https://www.instagram.com/p/Bq2Tj56nnbo/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=tsxb7nlx7tiq
