Girls' Education
"When you educate a girl, you educate the next generation."
The Need
Economics, cultural bias and gender discrimination often exclude girls from educational opportunities in the developing world. Yet, it is widely acknowledged that educating girls is the most powerful and effective way to address global poverty—and the single best investment one can make.
More than 180 national governments have pledged to achieve gender equality in education by 2015—with special focus on ensuring girls’ full and equal access to, and achievement in high quality, basic education (UNESCO, 2000).
When girls learn, their families, communities and societies all benefit. Educating girls is directly linked to positive outcomes, including:
- Lower infant mortality rates
- Increased eventual wages
- Increased likelihood of educating the next generation
- Improved family health
- Success in combating the spread of HIV/AIDS and other preventable diseases
- Improvement of general economic development
Despite these known benefits, girls are less likely than boys to attend school; and those girls fortunate enough to enroll are likely to drop out when transitioning from primary to secondary school.
Our Approach
In response to this need, Room to Read established our Girls’ Education program in 2000 to motivate, educate and empower girls by providing the support they need to enroll and remain in school. The program identifies girls at risk of dropping out of school and ensures that they have the opportunity to complete secondary school. Currently, the majority of our participants are ages 7 to 12.
Our approach is long-term and holistic. We provide material support (school fees, textbooks, uniforms, school supplies and transportation) as well as a range of supplementary activities (tutoring, life skills training, mentoring and medical check-ups) that contribute to the girls’ educational success. We also work with parents, teachers, school administrators and community members to ensure each girl has a strong support system in place to enable her to thrive.
In each Room to Read country the Girls’ Education program is specifically tailored and relevant to the community’s context and needs. The local teams and partners identify out-of-school girls and those who are most at risk of dropping out of school due to economic or cultural pressure. Some girls are selected individually to participate in the program, while in other cases we work with an entire classroom of girls in schools where the vast majority of them have been traditionally under-served.
Our Results
- Room to Read’s Girls’ Education program currently supports more than 6,800 girls on long-term scholarships.
- In 2008, 98% of girls in the Girls’ Education program advanced to the next grade.
- The program operates in eight countries (Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Laos, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, and Zambia).
| Country | Total Thru 2009 | 2010 (Projected) |
|---|
| Bangladesh |  | 234
| 0
|
| Cambodia |  | 1,622 | 0
|
| India |  | 2,081
| 700
|
| Laos |  | 821
| 250
|
| Nepal |  | 1,570 | 100
|
| South Africa |  | - | - |
| Sri Lanka |  | 1,194
| 350
|
| Vietnam |  | 1,003
| 150
|
| Zambia |  | 200 | 0
|
Click to learn more about our Girls' Education program.
Please note: It is Room to Read's philosophy not to establish a direct one to one relationship between our donors and individual students. We feel that forcing our students to maintain a relationship with a person they have never met is unfair, particularly since our students are young and not yet literate in English. Of equal importance is that our goal is to support our partner countries in addressing their own challenges. Requiring children to communicate with donors overseas may have the effect of their concluding that solutions lie beyond their own community. To provide information on our Girls' Education Program, we publish an annual Girls' Education Yearbook that details the components of the program and highlights some of our key partnerships as well as some of the participating girls.