Mulu grew up in a poor household in a rural community in Ethiopia's Amhara region.  At just nine years old her father died leaving the family in financial difficulty.  A year later, Mulu started work picking coffee, and later, haricot beans for cash alongside attending school and doing housework. This was difficult to manage, but Mulu reasoned that earning money helped her family and paid for her schooling.  Mulu’s elder sister joined college, moving four years later to a job in town from where she sent money home. Her sister's leaving meant more housework for Mulu but passing the national Grade 10 exam strengthened Mulu’s resolve to continue studying and when her elder sister lobbied their mother to allow her to she moved to town to study. Living with her elder sister in town, Mulu completed university and is now working as a civil engineer. 

Sarada grew up in a village with her family who belonged to a low-caste community.  She was an ambitious child but a physical disability meant she could only walk short distances, and couldn't stand for any length of time.  When their house collapsed the family took out a loan to build a new house and Sarada and her younger siblings were taken out of school to work to pay off the debt. However, against her parents’ will, Sarada insisted on going to school, and the local self-help group, the Disabled People’s Association, provided her with financial support, enabling her to continue into secondary school.

Aged 20,  Sarada was two years into her degree and teaching part-time in a night school with the ambition to become a professionally qualified teacher. The Disabled People’s Association had not only directly supported her, it also provided a source of informal support, empowering her to challenge her parents when they wanted her to work instead of going to school.

In India, Rajesh, spoke throughout his childhood of education as the route to success. Initially very ambitious, his aims dwindled from age 12 (‘I want to be a doctor’) to age 20 (‘whichever job I get fastest, that one I will take … It depends on fate’). His family were very poor; an illness meant he changed school age 13; aged 17 he had a motorbike accident and his father fell ill; his family took on debts to pay for his sister’s undergraduate degree. By age 19, he had moved to a nearby town for two months’ training as a security guard, and then was sent to Chennai to work. However, after a year, he returned to the village – he had been working at night but was very homesick. 

By age 20, he was living in his village, supporting his family, and had returned to education. His elder sisters (both teachers) made most of the decisions in the household, and they encouraged him throughout his childhood to study. By age 22, Rajesh spent most of his time attending college.

Over time, as children grew up they become more aware of structural inequalities. Maria (from Peru), echoing her mother, said living in a ‘machista’ society made it important for her to gain financial independence through a profession. Many of the girls who aspired to professional careers knew of young women either from their communities or ‘like them’ who were already working in their desired professions.

Children were also able to fare well when there were positive enabling environments in their homes, schools and communities. An enabling home was one with enough food for everyone, and where families were able to relieve children and young people from paid and unpaid work to focus on studying. A school environment with teachers sympathetic to the pressures on children helped; for example understanding when they were unable to afford school-related costs or when they missed school due to personal or family illness and for seasonal work.