By: Rebecca Singleton, 1st year
Linguere Health Volunteer
Fighting for
Girls' Education
In response to the news that the young activist Malala Yousafzai had been shot in the head by the Taliban, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon stated that day “the terrorists showed what frightened them most: a girl with a book.”
I, for one, believe their fear is a valid one. Women make up 52% of the world’s population, and yet we remain its largest untapped resource. Sixty-two million girls around the world who should be in school are not. The return investment a country would receive by educating the women is monumental. An educated girl is three times less likely to contract HIV/AIDS, she is more likely to get married later, to postpone having children until she is older, and to have fewer children. Furthermore, for every extra year of education, she will earn 20% more when she enters the work force. Her children will also be healthier and more literate. In light of the things we do know about the impact of girls’ education, the one thing that remains a mystery is why countries aren’t tripping over themselves to ensure that girls stay in school.
My first project in Senegal was the Michele Sylvester Scholarship. I partnered with two middle schools near my village and had the principal of each school give me a list of nine girls with high marks and a high financial need. I then sat down with each of the girls to interview them on their school activities, their hopes for the future, and their lives now. Each of the chosen girls will get their school inscription fee and school supplies paid for in the following academic year. All told, keeping the girls in school for an additional year cost $20.00 per girl. The pressure for these girls to drop out of school and stay at home is huge. Some of these girls are already married, some have kids, and those who don’t are still expected to go home after school and help cook and clean for their family. All the girls from one middle school I worked with were living away from their family for the academic year and staying with relatives because their villages was too far away to commute each day. This puts an additional burden on the family to support living and traveling expenses.
During one interview with a young girl, I asked her what the greatest challenge she faced was in her day-to-day life. She responded by saying that her family was very poor and it made it hard for her to study. When I asked her to explain, she told me that her family didn’t have electricity and couldn’t afford batteries for the flashlight, so she had to stop studying once it got dark. This didn’t leave her much time, since she had to finish her daily chores before she could study.
14