2017 Projects Bring Education to Rural Children
FOCUS ON COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION WILL ENSURE LONG TERM SUCCESS
Hurray! We are thrilled to announce our new project to fund secondary schooling for 100 girls in Tanzania’s Maasai Mara. We are partnering with the Stephen Lewis Foundation to provide not only education, but a holistic complement of services to ensure that this vulnerable population has the necessary tools and resources to learn, progress and graduate. Empowering these young women, and working with their communities to promote the value of girls’ education, will give them the tools to escape the cycle of poverty. You can find all the details HERE.
We know that education can be transformative and, in areas where girls are not always seen as equal or as important as boys, encouraging their communities to support girls’ education is crucial. Educating girls helps an entire community to become healthier and more prosperous. Data show that an educated girl is more likely to delay marriage and childbirth and, when she does start a family, she is better equipped to seek better nutrition for the children, to ensure that they receive healthcare and that they are able to go to school themselves. Educated women have higher earning power, which can help a family escape poverty and can give her a higher standing within the family and in the community. Finally, education encourages greater respect for the environment and higher rates of political involvement and participation.
In Tanzania’s very traditional, pastoral communities, educating girls at the secondary school level will be transformative. The Stephen Lewis Foundation writes that “…. Maasai girls are traditionally married off by the time they are fifteen years old, and only 1 in 100 girls gains access to secondary education. This dearth of education leads to a generation of women who suffer early and unwanted pregnancies, HIV infection, gender-based violence, illiteracy, poverty and hunger. Maasai girls are not encouraged to learn their rights or reflect on and gain the tools to explore their dreams and opportunities. Without any hope of a full educational cycle, there is little hope of change, physical or emotional security, fiscal independence… and so the cycle continues.”
SIERRA LEONE PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS USE OF TECHNOLOGY TO ENHANCE LEARNING
In addition, we are continuing our two-year funding commitment to our partner, CAUSE Canada, in Sierra Leone. This project focuses on using our new Mobile Learning Lab to bring up-to-date, rich and interactive learning materials to children in this rural community who have little access to traditional textbooks or even trained teachers.
Peer literacy facilitators, young women from the community who have progressed to secondary school, also work with primary-aged children, as part of this project. This peer mentoring encourages the younger girls to improve their reading skills and this positive example of what is possible helps them to stay in school to learn. You can read about this project HERE.
60 million girls’ Founder and President, Wanda Bedard, visited Sierra Leone last November to implement the first Mobile Learning Lab and to see the children’s reactions to this new tool. They loved it! Her blog from Sierra Leone explains what she did and the expected impact on the children of access to this incredibly informative and fun learning resource.
Together, these two projects, one traditional and one which uses new technologies to address educational needs, will be the focus of our 2017 funding campaign. We aim to raise at least $200,000 this year to support these worthy causes and we know that with YOUR help, we will be able to get there.
Thank you!
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