In their Words: Earning with Dignity, Teaching with Grace

When Mamta Jaiswal first joined GEET's Vocational Skills Programme, she had never worked outside her home. A soft-spoken Hindi-medium graduate and a mother of two, she had no formal employment history — only an instinctive sense of care, and a quiet determination to do something meaningful.

That first role was not just a job. It was a new beginning.

Mamta began by teaching vocational skills like mehndi design and tailoring to adolescent girls who had recently come out of juvenile detention. Many of these students had been let down by the systems meant to protect them, and were now standing at the edge of possibility; eager for a second chance, but unsure of how to take it. Mamta met them with patience and dignity, never judgement. Her classes became more than just skills sessions. They became spaces of affirmation, where the girls could reconnect with their own sense of worth and begin imagining new futures.

In guiding them, Mamta herself was transformed.

Teaching gave her financial independence for the first time. But more than that, it gave her a sense of self she had never experienced before — a public role, a community of peers, and the joy of being seen and valued for her work. The empathy and warmth she brought to the classroom made her beloved among students, and it didn't go unnoticed. What began as a single placement slowly evolved. Inspired by Mamta's impact, GEET formalised the Vocational Skills Programme and expanded it across more partner schools. The model took root: recruiting mothers who were otherwise excluded from formal employment, and empowering them to become educators, mentors, and earners in their own right. Today, Mamta remains at the heart of that journey, not just as a teacher, but as a quiet catalyst for change.

Her story reminds us that second chances aren't only for students. Sometimes, in helping others rebuild their lives, we end up reshaping our own.