Why Girl Child Education?

The United Nations states “Education is a basic human right, vital to personal and societal development and well being. All children deserve a quality education founded on a rights-based approach and rooted in the concept of gender equality. A rights-based approach to education will address inequalities in our societies that are deep-rooted and often gender-based. Such inequalities exclude millions of children, particularly girls, from school or condemn them to educational experiences of very poor quality.

Education enhances lives. It ends generational cycles of poverty and disease and provides the means for sustainable development. A quality basic education will better equip girls and boys with knowledge and skills needed to adopt healthy lifestyles, to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, and to take an active role in social, economic and political decision-making as they transition to adolescence and adulthood. As educated adults, they are more likely to have fewer children, to be informed about appropriate child-rearing practices, and to ensure their children start school on time and are ready to learn.” (http://www.unicef.org/girlseducation/index.php)

Empty school on a Sunday morning. This school was built by World Vision.

For Daniel, the reason for girl child education begins in his home.

“Suraya and Amama are girls in their early teens who live and work in my home. Everyday they sweep the compound, fetch water and basically do everything in the house. I was not happy with this, when I saw them and I would get worried about their future. I would ask myself: “How will their life end up if they are not in school?” Even though the government has made primary school education free, families like mine still find it difficult to send all their children to school due to the additional cost of books and uniforms combined with the time taken away from household chores.

Suraya sweeps the compound daily.

It was definitely not for lack of interest that these two teenage girls had not been educated. Every night they would take the boys books and try to read and write. Sometimes the other children who were privileged to attend school would laugh at the sight of a 16 year old girl trying to write simple sentences on the wall.

So when a friend of mine offered to provide the money for Suraya to attend school both Suraya and I were overjoyed. A few months ago Suraya made the brave journey that most of us can’t remember – she had her first day at school. Since then she has been the most studious student of all the children in my house. She no longer borrows books and struggles to extract any amount of knowledge from them, each night you can find her seriously studying and learning quickly too! I expect that she will advance by more than one grade next year.

Suraya studiously studying her science homework - parts of a plant.

Just recently Amama expressed interest in attending school. Seeing the positive results of sending Suraya, I was able to gather enough money to also support Amama. She will start attending classes in January.”

While UNICEF has the theory correct on girl child education, through community advocacy and leading by example Daniel is working hard to put the theory in action.

Introduction to a big dream

"My goal is to get girl children back to school. I look through the windows of school buildings and for every 100 children I see only a few girls. I pass by people's homes and see girls hard at work - carrying water, cleaning and cooking but missing out on an opportunity for education." - Dan, Project Leader

In the past, the development sector has had programs to encourage girl children to go to school. These programs have not been as successful as hoped. So why will the dream we have for this project be realized? This intervention is different because it is designed and implemented from the ground. There is no master project full of lofty impact indicators, workshops that won't be implemented by development staff, and no donor driven agenda. This project is simply a big dream from a community leader who intends to see it through.

The purpose of this blog is to inform and engage you in this dream.

Below is a short anecdote that describe the initial steps taken by Daniel along the path to achieving quality of life for girl children.

"We visited about 4 villages in order to educate people about female child labor and education. In fact, almost everybody in the villages appreciated our visit and were happy to learn about this voluntary program.

We were able to get some people in each village to join our quest as volunteers to also mobilize or assemble the people whenever we visit the village in the future. By going around the villages we realized that there are plenty of orphans and disabled children who need to go back to school.

The villages we visited are called: Kpuliyin, Bugu, Tumo Naayilli, and Duriyo Pkalgu When we visied Kpulyin, we meet with the cheif, elders, as well as the religious leaders, the pastor and cheif Imaam. The pastor explained that he had attended numerous workshops on educating girl children but had not been able to implement the ideas he obtained in the workshops. His work keeps him busy and due to his age, he was not able to act on things. He appreciated the ideas that I brought and was happy to see that I was young and committed to the project.

The community leaders expressed that they were ready to support my project. I went home that day feeling happy with the steps I have taken."

Dan stands proud in front of the community school. He dreams of passing by this school and seeing more girls.