Educate the Girls has been sending girls in need in a rural area of Uganda to primary and secondary school for five year. In Uganda, as in many places in the developing world, children often do not go to school because their parents do not have the money to pay their school fees—and this burden falls disproportionately on girls, despite numerous studies showing that educating girls means that their children will be more likely to be healthy and educated. In Uganda, which once had a severe AIDS problem, AIDS education is taught in the schools, so educating girls can save their lives. Currently we are helping approximately 50 girls, and many remain to be helped, just in this area.
Many of the girls we help are orphans, often as a result of AIDS, who are living with another relative who has difficulty paying the school fees. Other girls live far from the schools, or have home chores that take up the time they need to study in the evenings. Sometimes they are hungry or do not have paraffin for their lamps so they can study when the sun goes down around 7 pm. Boarding schools can eliminate these barriers, giving girls a chance to concentrate on studying.
We have also helped two girls who contracted polio at age 2. One of them, Sarah, now 21, was never able to go to school, and she considered herself “useless.” Thanks to Educate the Girls, she now has a tutor, and in her first four months of studying, she passed the first three grades. She is an avid student, and now sees the possibility of a career for herself.
Educate the Girls works with a women’s group in the town of Kononi, which organized to find ways to send girls to school in the area. One of the ways they do this is by making and selling baskets. We have partnered with them to buy their baskets, sell them in the United States, and return the profits to them for girls’ education.
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