who dramatically raised the living
standards of her family, and served
as a role model for girls in her
community.
This story pictures how girls from
less developing countries are
shun out of school even before
the end of elementary school. It
it is because of enscribed and
“enshrined” mentalities that girls
“pay more” when they are raised to
attract and get married to well-off
men.
Authorities find it difficult to
intervene concerning access to
quality education because the
whole environment (school, home,
church,, and social gatherings)
is firmly pervaded by those
mentalities. As such, only NGOs
which work at the grassroots
level can successfully address
that challenge. By digging into
the daily difficulties that the role
models went through in their
search for quality education,
NGOs are better equipped to
develop and implement a model of
empowerment for disadvantaged
youths in general, and girls in
particular. Moreover, it is far more
effective and empowering when
the role models themselves start
the grassroots organizations.
Such an exemple is that of Hawaou
Adamou, who, after getting out
of child marriage, went on to
launch an NGO called Association
des Femmes Haoussa pour le
Développement (AFHADEV). The
organization provides basic literacy
activities to disadvantaged girls
including financial literacy, self-
development, and educational
outreach. They also helps
girls obtain grants from global
stakeholders in order to start
their own projects and become
financially autonomous.
Community role models need
to develop social entreprises
at the grassroots level, that
will leverage access to quality
education as a means to pave
the way for university. A model
of social startup I propose is that
of a grassroots organization that
creates grit boarding schools and
summer academies.
Grit is a concept developed by
Angela Duckworth, an American
psychologist. Through the grit
scale, she and her colleagues
measured the degree of interest
in a subject/goal, the passion
developed from it, and the
perseverance shown in the pursuit
and attainment of that goal. It led
them to the following equation :
talent x effort = skill; skill x effort
= achievement. What the equation
reveals to us is that, ultimately,
even if conditions for quality
education are put together, the
girl will need to find an academic
subject/goal that attracts her
interest, then stick with it through
sustained efforts, in order to
achieve excellence and success.
Dr. Duckworth’s research and
progress in neuroscience have
shown that even in Science,
Technology, Engineering, and
Mathematics (STEM) fields, the
brain can keep working hard to
teach itself how to master the
subjects. Grit boarding schools
and summer academies will use
their grants to develop curricula
that help girls cultivate grit through
the following long-term courses:
self-development, emotional
intelligence, financial literacy,
vocational activities, grant writing,
communication and analytical
skills, and a high focus on STEM
fields.
The social startup will recruit girls
for its grit schools by administering
the test of the grit scale to students
of primary schools selected
for educational campaigns and
outreach. Successful girls will
enroll in grit schools from the last
two years of elementary school to
the last year of secondary school.
The benefit of a grit boarding
school is that it will cultivate a
culture of grit from the outside in,
while grit curricula will generate
grit from the inside out. As a result,
girls will emerge out of the grit
boarding schools not only with
quality education, but also better
equipped to handle adversity, and
with opportunities to reach out to
the most prestigious universities,
job positions, and startup
creations.
About the Author
Carole Nyemeck is a student from Yaoundé in Cameroon.
She has many volunteering and advocacy activities
like being a Commonwealth correspondent, writing
development articles on the Commonwealth Youth journal,
as a Global Youth Ambassador promoting access to quality
education in Cameroon, and as a Cameroon Leadership
Academician for 2016. These experiences have all forged
her interest in girls and women empowerment.
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Change Magazine September 2017 www.changemag-diinsider.com
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