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When she speaks, her words are wise, and she gives instructions with kindness.
[Proverbs 31:26]
The number of children and adolescents not enrolled in school is on the rise. We know the problem is especially acute for girls. According to UNESCO estimates, 130 million girls between ages 6 to 17 are out of school and 15 million girls of primary-school age—half of them in sub-Saharan Africa— will never enter a classroom. Yet we also know that better educated women tend to be healthier, participate more in the formal labor market, earn higher incomes, have fewer children, marry at a later age and enable better health care and education for their children. These factors combined can help lift households, communities and nations out of poverty.
The 4 C's that exclude girls from their ABC's:
Click here to go back to the Main Featured Issues page
When she speaks, her words are wise, and she gives instructions with kindness.
[Proverbs 31:26]
The number of children and adolescents not enrolled in school is on the rise. We know the problem is especially acute for girls. According to UNESCO estimates, 130 million girls between ages 6 to 17 are out of school and 15 million girls of primary-school age—half of them in sub-Saharan Africa— will never enter a classroom. Yet we also know that better educated women tend to be healthier, participate more in the formal labor market, earn higher incomes, have fewer children, marry at a later age and enable better health care and education for their children. These factors combined can help lift households, communities and nations out of poverty.
The 4 C's that exclude girls from their ABC's:
- Child marriage: More than 41,000 girls under the age of 18 marry every day. These marriages decrease a girl’s educational attainment and earnings potential. (Source: World Bank)
- Conflict: Girls in conflict areas are 90% more likely to be out of secondary school. (Source: GEM Report, Policy Paper 21, June 2015, p.3)
- Cost: School fees and indirect costs of schooling decrease enrollment
- Child labor: In areas with few restrictions on child labor, often daughters are sent to work rather than school.
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Key stats about the benefits of educating girls:
From World Vision:
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From The Malala Fund:
Strengthened economies and job creation: Estimates suggest that ending child marriage could generate more than $500 billion in benefits annually. If all girls went to school for 12 years, low- and middle-income countries could add $92 billion per year to their economies. When women are educated, there are more jobs for everyone. Better health and healthier families: Each additional year of school a girl completes cuts infant mortality and child marriage rates. 12 years of education would result in a 64% drop in child marriage, early births would drop by 59%, and child deaths would decrease by 49%. Community stability and national security: When a country gives all its children a secondary education, they cut their risk of war in half. Education is vital for security around the world because extremism grows alongside inequality. Good for our planet: The Brookings Institute calls secondary schooling for girls the most cost-effective and best investment against climate change. Research also suggests that girls’ education reduces a country’s vulnerability to natural disasters. |
You are altogether beautiful, my darling, beautiful in every way.
[Song of Songs 4:7]
[Song of Songs 4:7]
Maria from Girible presenting her capacity to read
Photo: ADRA
Photo: ADRA
The Brooking’s Institute did a deep and comprehensive dive into girls’ education and what works.
Click here for the full report.
Click here for helpful factsheets that break it down fast.
And here’s a terrific interactive map to help you explore what interventions work around the world
Click here for the full report.
Click here for helpful factsheets that break it down fast.
And here’s a terrific interactive map to help you explore what interventions work around the world
The world's girls are our girls.
Read what some faith-based organizations are doing to help:
Read what some faith-based organizations are doing to help:
Photo: ADRA
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Adventist Development and Relief Agency International, ADRA, operated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, partners with Islamic Relief and Rise Against Hunger to help curb hunger
Albertina, who lives near Mozambique's capital city, rarely has a meal that satisfies her hunger. Albertina does her best in an unforgiving situation by managing her small meals for optimum concentration and her hour-long walk to school. As part of a holistic strategy to address the El Niño drought that has hit Albertina's country, the Relief and Recovery School Feeding Initiative is a joint school feeding program of ADRA International, Islamic Relief, and Rise Against Hunger to reduce the risk of chronic malnutrition in children in school. It delivers a daily meal to 221 schools across Southern Africa (Mozambique, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, and Malawi). In Mozambique alone, over 10,000 children receive a meal in school every day. A school meal program means Albertina won’t be functionally hungry and she can devote her energy to her education. She lights up when she talks about her favorite subject, Portuguese, and shares her enthusiasm by teaching her 4 brothers and 2 sisters words she learns in school. Albertina’s dream is to become an architectural engineer. The school feeding initiative honors her ambition. |
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World Vision targets WASH in schools to curb shame
When washroom facilities are not available, girls are reluctant to attend school during their monthly cycles. This harms government efforts to get – and keep – girls in school. At Kholombidzo Primary School in rural Malawi, girls are motivated to continue with school thanks to sanitary toilets constructed by World Vision. These toilets provide the privacy they need during the school day. Thirteen-year-old Doreen, a Grade 8 student, is one of the girls benefiting from new latrines with a specially fitted menstrual hygiene facility room. The room can be accessed only by girls in the senior primary section, providing the space and support they need. Female teachers serve as matrons and provide the girls with reserved sanitary pads, often in short supply. “Our girls are not ashamed anymore. They can access their safe room whenever they want and privacy is 100% guaranteed.” |
Doreen Chiutsi, age 13 and in grade eight, jumps for joy with her friends outside the menstrual hygiene facilities at their school.
Photo: Charles Kabena / World Vision |
A young girl in Peru smiles and walks away with her new School Kit
(and Personal Care Kit). Photo: LWR |
Lutheran World Relief provides basic supplies that open the opportunity to learn
When a family cannot afford school supplies, often their children do not have the option to go to class. Lutheran World Relief's School Kits provide the basics like pencils, pens and paper, helping families overcome one obstacle in the road to school. In 2016, LWR distributed over 190,000 School Kits to communities in 12 countries. Some went to Burkina Faso where families struggle with ongoing drought and the resulting income and nutritional deficits. Others went to the country of Georgia where many people face homelessness and other vulnerable situations. Others went to Peru to support families that are marginalized and excluded from private and public development efforts due to extreme poverty, sex, age and health. |
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Adventist Development and Relief Agency International, ADRA, helps refugee girls go to school
A Serbian school is an integration center for the local population, Syrian refugees, migrants and Roma population placed in Belgrade. For young Syrian and Afghan girls, attending this school is possible thanks to ADRA's refugee project. ADRA transports the students from their refugee camp to school and back, and provides students with interpreters to help them as they adjust to a new language and culture. A Syrian girl says, "I am attending school here in Belgrade, together with Serbian kids. I usually come a few minutes before the bells and then we talk to each other. I met some new friends with the help of the learned Serbian and English language. Sometimes we have a problem to understand each other and what the teacher is saying, but if at that time an ADRA interpreter is with us it is much more easier. Also the classmates help me as much as they can. We spend time together during school break. School is very interesting to me, everything is new, different, that is really nice...I've met many good people here and they are now my friends." An Afghan girl says, "In Serbian schools, girls and boys are together and it was so interesting that girls are very close to each other. In my class, Jelena is the dearest to me. Generally, I'm so happy here with ADRA staff in Serbia, I love them and because of them I'm feeling welcomed here in Serbia”. To protect identities, personal information has been changed. |
Syrian refugee girls studying in Serbia
Photo: ADRA 
Syrian refugee girls studying in Serbia
Photo: ADRA |
Girls studying in Hargeisa, Somaliland
Photo: World Food Programme |
ADRA shines light on education - literally
Nadira, a vivacious 10-year old in 6th grade, lives Hargeisa, Somaliland, a dusty, bustling town at the top of this Horn of Africa country where electricity rates are among the most expensive in Africa (about US$1 for 1 kwh). Like many of her classmates, Nadira’s family cannot afford this luxury. Her family makes do with just one kerosene lamp. Which means a nightly juggle between the evening’s household needs and their children's need to do schoolwork. The light is poor quality and strains their eyes. Burning kerosene puts Nadira and her brothers and sisters at risk for long-term health problems from toxic fumes, equivalent to smoking two packets of cigarettes a day according to the World Bank. These lamps can also cause severe burns and house fires. ADRA has a project to provide solar-powered lamps that offer much safer, brighter and cheaper light. Nadira is among 400 girls who have received a lamp. Seeing it operate for the first time, she said, “This will make such a difference in our house...I think this will improve my performance at school.” Nadira had also been suffering from asthma but her condition improved with the removal of nightly toxic kerosene fumes. Nadira’s mother was also pleased, “The importance of the physical aspects of their learning environment, such as the lighting, the learning materials and the amount of time they have for study, cannot be underestimated.” |
Education is more than enrollment
USAID’s Women in Development (WID) Office's Basic Education program strengthens the capacity to institute gender-equitable practices and policies in USAID-funded basic education activities. The objective is to address some of the fundamental issues that prevent girls from entering or continuing their schooling, such as unsafe school environments, and inequitable practices in teaching, textbooks and learning materials that promote gender stereotypes and negatively impact achievement and completion rates.
Ensuring that girls stay in school requires that all stakeholders -- parents, community members, educators, policymakers, and donors -- look beyond enrollment and address larger, contextual issues. The World Banks offers the following solutions to help girls get and stay in school:
USAID’s Women in Development (WID) Office's Basic Education program strengthens the capacity to institute gender-equitable practices and policies in USAID-funded basic education activities. The objective is to address some of the fundamental issues that prevent girls from entering or continuing their schooling, such as unsafe school environments, and inequitable practices in teaching, textbooks and learning materials that promote gender stereotypes and negatively impact achievement and completion rates.
Ensuring that girls stay in school requires that all stakeholders -- parents, community members, educators, policymakers, and donors -- look beyond enrollment and address larger, contextual issues. The World Banks offers the following solutions to help girls get and stay in school:
- Provide conditional cash transfers, stipends or scholarships
- Reduce distance to school
- Target boys and men to be a part of discussions about cultural and societal practices
- Ensure gender-sensitive curricula and pedagogues
- Hire and train qualified female teachers
- Build safe and inclusive learning environments for girls and young women
- End child/early marriage
- Address violence against girls and women
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Let’s not forget the basics!
Every school needs water, sanitation and hygiene, WASH. Without WASH, girls miss school to help their mothers haul water for their family, and often drop out all together without facilities to meet their needs as they get older. More information at: H2O for Life and Faiths for Safe Water. |
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She is clothed with strength and dignity and she laughs without fear of the future.
[Proverbs 31:25]
[Proverbs 31:25]