Impact / News

OUR COMMITMENT TO GIRLS’ EDUCATION

December 1, 2019

Helen Packer

2 mins

At United World Schools, we’re committed to sending all children to school and we’re particularly passionate about girls’ education. There is still a huge gender gap in education: globally, there are 31 million primary-age girls out of school and UNESCO reports that girls are more likely to never enter primary school than boys. We want to change this.

WHY DOES GIRLS’ EDUCATION MATTER?

Girls’ education is crucial to achieving gender equality.

Attending school can prevent girls from marrying young and starting families at an early age. Instead, education can give girls improved job opportunities and higher lifetime earnings, allowing them to break the cycles of illiteracy and poverty. Plus, education gives women the voice to participate in politics and empower other women.

Girls’ education benefits everyone.

There are multiple health benefits to educating women, such as reduced infant mortality. A child born to a mother who can read is 50% more likely to survive past the age of five. What’s more, an educated female population increases a country’s productivity and economic growth.

HOW ARE WE HELPING?

We’re enrolling girls into our schools…
When we partner with a community in need of a school, we meet with parents and local leaders. Before we commit to a partnership, we make sure they want to send all their children to school, including girls.

…and keeping them there.
Once the school is open, we keep an eye on how many girls are attending. If there don’t seem to be as many as there should, our fantastic Education Officers and School Support Committees work with local communities to enrol girls into our schools.

Then we give them a pathway to secondary school. 

As the communities we work with are so remote, often government secondary schools are too far away to walk to every day. So in Cambodia, we’ve built dormitory blocks next to these secondary schools. Girls and boys can stay in these during the week, allowing them to continue their education. And we provide the female residents with sanitary towels, so their periods don’t stop them from attending school. Read more about how our dormitories help girls here.

Donate to support girls’ education

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