The Challenge
In countries throughout the developing world, education is not free. Families are often charged monthly or annual school fees by the local government to pay for the operation and maintenance of schools. Many families cannot afford the relatively high cost of school fees or are unable to forego the income of a working child. According to the United Nations, there are over 115 million children currently not enrolled in primary school and many millions more not in secondary school.
Because of economics and cultural bias, families often forego the education of young girls. In Cambodia, for example, girls' enrollment in school drops precipitously as they get older. At the primary level, 91% of girls are enrolled in school; at the secondary level, only 19% are enrolled; the number drops to 7% at the upper secondary level (grades 9-10). (1) In Nepal, only 35% of women are literate. (2) In India, female literacy rates stand at 52% (3) and it is estimated that 35 million children are not attending school. (4) If a family is able to send only one child to school, which is often the case, it is generally the oldest boy. In rural areas, girls are kept behind to work in the fields or in the home. Commonly, they marry and begin having their own children by adolescence, thus continuing the cycle of poverty, over-population, and ignorance. In urban settings some girls sell trinkets and tourist items on street corners. This work often leads to prostitution and other sordid means of earning money. Room to Read aims to end these two futile cycles.
The Room to Read Room to Grow Girls' Scholarship Approach
Our Room to Grow Girls' Scholarship Program has an immediate and direct impact on the lives of thousands of girls in the developing world. An education provides security and support to girls who often grow up in very uncertain environments and empowers them to make informed life decisions. A solid education beginning in the early years is the key ingredient for improved status for women, which provides a ripple of positive effects throughout society.
- For every year a girl remains in secondary school, her wages increase 10-20%
- An educated woman has fewer children, so population growth is slowed in resource-scarce countries
- Infant mortality decreases by 8% for each year a woman stays in school
- Family health and nutrition rise in the home of an educated woman
- An educated woman is more likely to educate the next generation
Room to Read makes a long-term commitment to each girl on scholarship: as long as she attends classes and receives passing grades, we will continue to fund her education through the completion of secondary school. This promise provides an incentive for her to do well in school and for the family to support her through the process. Currently, the majority of our scholarship students range in age from five to ten years.
Depending on the country and specific region the girls are in, the scholarship covers all the needs of a young girl, including:
- Monthly school fees
- School uniforms
- Books, stationary, and backpacks
- Female Room to Read staff member to oversee the program and mentor the girls
- Additional tutoring as needed
- Transportation (such as a bicycle or bus fare) for girls living far from school
- Lunch money if the girls live too far from school to eat at home
- Medical check-ups and expenses
- Field trips and workshops
Our program officers work closely with the Room to Grow scholarship recipients and give them the support they need to be successful in the face of adversity. The program officers work actively to help remove the roadblocks that the girls may encounter, meeting regularly with the girls, their families, and the school administrators.
Along the Vietnamese and Cambodian border, sex trafficking of young girls is a tragic reality. Some families struggling to make ends meet or feed themselves are often forced to make unimaginable decisions. Thinking of a child as an asset to be sold is viewed as the only option. The ADAPT Program (An Giang Dong Thap Alliance for the Prevention of Trafficking) is a collaborative program among several NGOs and seeks to prevent the trafficking of young women by enhancing their educational opportunities and improving their vocational options through a supportive web of services. Room to Read provides the scholarship component of this program. The ADAPT scholarship program is a collaborative commitment between the child, the adults in her life, the school, and Room to Read. The child promises to do her best in her studies. In return, the parents promise to let her continue her education. The school encourages her academic performance, and we cover the financial cost of her education.
Our Challenge Grant Model
Prior to the start of each school year, the local Room to Read team oversees a selection process by which we choose our scholarship students. In conjunction with our partner NGOs (non-governmental organizations), we select regions in which we want to operate, generally areas where we have built schools or established libraries and thus know the local authorities. We enlist these contacts to recommend girls who would be good candidates based on need and the families' commitment to education. Each applicant and her family complete a simple written application. Our local staff and volunteers conduct a personal interview with each potential candidate and her family. Then the final selections are made.
During the school year, we monitor the attendance and performance of our scholarship students, through biannual visits with teachers. In addition, at the end of each school year, we evaluate each student's performance, both through report cards and discussion with her teachers, before renewing our commitment to next year's education. In order to track their progress as well as the overall development of the program, records are kept on all students.
Additionally, the girls themselves contribute to the challenge grant model. Nguyen Huu Vinh Hanh from our Room to Grow Girls' Scholarship Program in Vietnam sums it up best: "When visiting these girls' homes, I feel that I am very lucky. I have a decent house to live, nutritious meals to eat, enjoyable school days without any concern for tuition fee and an available motorbike to travel to school without any concern for tired legs. Many girls in the scholarship program are living in remote areas without electricity. They have to struggle everyday; passing the river, mud, and paddy fields to get to school. At night they have to study in the dark. However, it seems nothing can stand in their way in pursuit of education. They are so BRAVE. My effort to improve this program is so humble in comparison with their effort to overcome the barriers of their schooling."
Room to Grow Girls' Scholarship Results
In 2006, over 4,000 girls from underprivileged families in Cambodia, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam attended school as Room to Grow scholarship recipients. We will continue to rapidly grow this program in 2007 and beyond so that girls have an opportunity to receive an education and improve their lives.
To learn more about the Room to Grow Girls' Scholarship Program and meet some of our inspiring young scholars, please download our most recent Room to Grow Girls' Scholarship Yearbook (Adobe PDF, 1.3MB).
"When you educate a girl, you educate the next generation."
| Country | Total Thru 2007 | 2008 (Projected) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cambodia |  |
956 | 650 |
| India |  |
1007 | 750 |
| Laos |  |
200 | 300 |
| Nepal |  |
764 | 490 |
| Sri Lanka |  |
300 | 500 |
| Vietnam |  |
809 | 373 |
| South Africa |  |
- | - |
| Zambia |  |
- | 200 |
How You Can Help
"Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope. It is a tool for daily life in modern society. It is a bulwark against poverty, and a building block of development.... Especially for girls and women, it is an agent of family health and nutrition. For everyone, everywhere, literacy is, along with education in general, a basic human right.... Literacy is, finally, the road to human progress and the means through which every man, woman and child can realize his or her full potential."
- Kofi Annan, UN Secretary General
The voices of these young girls speak to us so many miles away. Today, they are changing the world one girl at a time. You can participate in this change by bringing education and hope to a young girl's life.
 |
Donate to the Room to Grow Girls' Scholarship Program - Make a donation towards a girl's education in a particular country, to the program in general, or leave it up to Room to Read to best allocate your contribution. |
 |
Sponsor a girls' scholarship (5). |
 |
Learn about volunteer opportunities with Room to Read. |
 |
Sign up for our quarterly electronic newsletter to get updates on the organization, our programs, and more. |
"My mother used to tell me that 'girls who know how to read and write will only write love letters to boys... so it is better that girls do not go to school.' Times have changed since I was young and I know that going to school is the only way that [my granddaughter] will ever get out of this poverty we live in."
- 79-year old Grandmother of a Room to Grow Scholar, Cambodia
(1) Human Development Report Statistics - Cambodia
(2) Human Development Report Statistics - Nepal
(3) Human Development Report Statistics - India
(4) World Vision Country Profile 2006
(5) 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 Room to Grow Girls' Scholarship Program, we publish an annual Girls' Scholarship Yearbook that details the components of the scholarship and highlights some of the key partnerships as well as some of the scholarship girls.
