Recipient of the Month
Umoyo Girls School
Lusaka, Zambia

"I have yet to visit any other learning environment in southern Africa that does a better job of girls' empowerment." - Stephen Lewis. Race Against Time. 2005 - CBC, Stephen Lewis Associates Ltd., House of Anansi Press Inc.

Why Just Girls ?

In 2001 the World Bank identified education of girls as the key to effective development, saying countries that promote women’s rights and increase their access to schooling have lower poverty rates, faster economic growth, healthier populations and less government corruption than countries that don’t.

This finding is one of the major reasons for the mandate of Give Girls A Chance.

(Select a topic, or scroll down to read all)

Statistics on Literacy and Education:

Facts about Gender Equality and Education.

Millennium Development Goals

What are the Challenges to Girls Education?

HIV/AIDS
War
Culture
Economics
Pregnancy

How Does Educating a Women Help?

Gain Confidence
Gain Economic Independence
Improved Health Care
Improvement in the Whole Community

Related Links

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Statistics on Literacy and Education:

• 862 million adults - one sixth of the world's population are illiterate, two-thirds (approximately 576 million are women) Most of these people are from the poorest sectors of society and have never, or only briefly attended school.
• 121 million children do not attend school more than half, 65 million are girls (source http://www.unicef.org/girlseducation/campaign_Child_to_ChildSurvey.html)
• 40 % of all children in Africa have no education (Oxfam) 2003

What are the Challenges to Girls' Education?

• The HIV/AIDS pandemic is presenting enormous challenges in education and girls are disproportionately affected whether they are infected or not. Globally, more than half of all people living with HIV are female. In sub-Saharan Africa, the region hardest hit by HIV/AIDS, more than two out of three newly-infected 15-24-year olds are female. For adolescents between the ages of 15 and 19, five or six girls are infected for every boy in worst-affected areas. Girls who are not infected are affected as they are relegated to being caregivers to infected parents or family members or income earners or tenders of the family crops. Between 6,000 and 6,500 people die of AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa every day resulting in many orphans. Deaths also include teachers. (World Bank)
• War is a major barrier for girls wanting to go to school; school buildings are often destroyed, and the roads leading to them often have dangers ranging from attack to land mines. Many families are displaced from their villages during years of fighting. The number of girls in school is on the rise in areas with cease fires. UNICEF - State of the World's Children' 2004
• Cultural -Ingrained gender bias and discrimination within the education system and community are a major reasons for girls droping out of school. This bias is often repeated in text books. Families give priority to educating the boys.
• Economics - Poverty is a major factor in girls not attending school. Girls are needed to help with the family income by working outside the house, tending crops, or acting as care givers for members of their family. When you are worried about putting food on the table, it is difficult to pay tuition or buy books and uniforms.
• Pregnancy Girls as young as fourteen are faced with child care and frequently do not have the support to help them attend school. In some cases they are expelled from school when their pregnancy is discovered.

How Does Educating a Women Help?

• Broad social benefits include increased family incomes, later marriages, reduced birth rates and reduced infant and maternal mortality rates, better nourished and healthier children and families, and greater life choices

Women Gain Confidence

• "the best way to fight (discrimination) is to educate the young girls so that they know they are not being treated right" In Brazil, an estimated half a million girls under age 20 make their living as prostitutes. Many of these girls are poorly educated ....and feel they have no other way to support their family. UNICEF
• Education gives women choice.

Gain Economic Independence

• In Zambia, rural women with between 8 - 12 years of education are only half as likely to be living in extreme poverty as women with no education Oxfam - The Benefits of Education
• Education is vital to ensuring a better quality of life for all children and a better world for all people

Improvement in Health Care

• Child Bearing. An educated girl tends to marry later and have fewer children. The children she does have tend to be more likely to survive; better nurished and better educated. (UNICEFF) Bodies of young girls (10-14) are not fully developed, and they are five timesmore likely to die in pregnancy or childbirth. Approximately 15 million adolescent girls give birth every year (more than 10 % of the births worldwide) Every year, 82 millions young girls between the ages of 10 and 17 are married.
• Every day more than 1,500 women die from preventable complications arising from pregnancy and childbirth. (Per 100,000 live births in 2000: Africa 830, Asia (excluding Japan) 330, Oceania (excluding Australia and New Zealand) 240, Latin America and the Carribbean 190, Inducstrialized countries 20)
• Educating women is related to lower death rates and a longer life. World Bank
• Children of uneducated mothers are more than twice as likely to die or be malnurished than mothers who have had secondary or higher education. Each additional year in primary school reduces the chance of premature death by about 8%. Oxfam - The Benefits of Education
• Mental Health - Discrimination against women is stressful of itself and may affect women's mental health. Education leads to self confidence and better economic situations which can reduce some of the discrimination.
• Nutrition. Nutrition education results in a healthier population. Oxfam - The Benefits of Education

Community Benefits

"Study after study has shown that there is no effective development strategy in which women do not play a central role. When women are fully involved, the benefits can be seen immediately; families are healthier and better fed; their income, savings and reinvestment go up. And what is true of families is also true of communities, and, in the long run, of whole countries. " UN Secretary - General Kofi Annan.
(speech on International Women's Day, 8 March 2003)

Related Links:

1. UNICEF - (girls education) http://unicef.org/girlseducation/index_3891.html
2. UNICEFF - The State of the World's Children 2004: Girls' Educaton

http://www.unicef.org/media/media_15012.html

3. United Nations Girls' Education Initiative (UNGEI) - 2000

This ten year plan is the goal of the UN to mount a sustained campaign to improve the quality and availability of girls'education through a collaborative partnership of different entities within and outside the United Nations system.
http://www.ungei.org

4. World Bank - Girls Education

"The World Bank has recognized the striking body of empirical evidence that demonstrates strong benefits of girls’ education which span across a wide range of areas including maternal and child health, social stability, environmental benefits and economic growth. Girls’ education and the promotion of gender equality in education are critical to development, and policies and actions that do not address gender disparities miss critical development opportunities."
http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTEDUCATION/0,,menuPK:282391~pagePK:149018~piPK:149093~theSitePK:282386,00.html

5. World Health Organization - Women's Health http://www.who.int/topics/womens_health/en/

6. Canadian Global Campaign for Education (CGE) Alliance

http://www.campaignforeducationcanada.org