Dear Girls Ed Pakistan Supporters,
Thank you for your continued support. This month, Safeer Ullah Khan of Bedari, the Pakistani women and girls’ rights organization and Girls Ed partner, stopped in Denver to visit with GEI board members and co-founder Lizzy Scully. Safeer was in the United States to participate in the International Volunteers Leader Program sponsored by the U.S. State Department.
Although Girls Ed has partnered with Bedariand worked with Safeer since 2009, it was the first face-to-face meeting with him. Safeer shared much information about the state of girls’ education in Pakistan, but perhaps most striking was the effect of the GEI/Bedari partnership on the lives of 30 girls in Laphi, an agricultural town of 3,500 people in north-central Pakistan.
Before the partnership began, no girl in Laphi had ever attended secondary school. Most girls would get married before their 16th birthday and begin their own large families — the average is seven children per woman in Laphi.
Some men in the village were against educating girls, fearing the girls would become disrespectful to their elders. Also, the scholarships, which some in Laphi saw only as charity, were not initially welcome by the proud residents.
Three years later, there have been significant changes. Ten girls in the village have completed their secondary education, with 30 girls currently attending secondary school. Twenty-two of those girls are sponsored by Girls Ed. The other eight? Their families are now paying for their daughters’ expenses, which speaks volumes about the change in attitude towards girls and secondary education.
Our thanks to Safeer Ullah Khan for traveling to Denver to update us on Bedari‘s efforts on behalf of our Laphi girls. It’s always inspirational to meet an individual who is so committed to the rights and education of women and girls in under-developed parts of the world.
GEI is pleased to be working with Safeer and Bedari to change not only the lives of these 30 girls, but to help create a larger, positive trend towards girls’ education in Pakistan.
Dear Project Wezesha supporters,
We hope you are having a wonderful spring season! There are a few exciting updates to share about our scholarship program, so please keep reading.
First, you might recall that we added 22 students to our program last summer. Of those 22, nine of them were Standard 7 level students. Standard 7 is the last grade in primary school. The pressure on these students was great after being selected because in order to advance to secondary school, you must pass exit exams from primary school. Based on your scores, the government of Tanzania, via the Ministry of Education, determines which secondary school you will attend. So - our students studied hard and did their very best.
Now, we can congratulate the following students on passing these exams: Sango, Waridi, Ezra, Rahma, George, Amina, Mahamadu and Simoni. One student, Elinathani, did not pass but he has the option of repeating standard 7 and trying again next year. All of those who passed are currently attending secondary schools, as of January 2013! In fact, two of them scored so well that the Ministry of Education sent them to exceptional schools in larger cities within Tanzania. Waridi is attending a private school in Dar es Salaam and Ezra is attending a boarding school in Dodoma.
In other good news, our fiscal agent - Girls Education International - is branching out with a new scholarship program in Tanzania, in partnership with Project Wezesha! So, in addition to the boys and girls that you are helping us support through our own scholarship program, Girls Ed will be selecting an additional group of bright young girls to support starting January of 2014. The application and selection process will begin in July 2013. Project Wezesha will provide in-country management of this program. It's a natural fit! Girls Ed will be supporting girls in Pakistan, Liberia and Tanzania. Project Wezesha is happy to support this effort to increase access to education for girls in Tanzania!
Also, this summer, Project Wezesha will have another intern - Brian Frederich, an undergraduate student at Westminster College in Salt Lake City, UT. We are very excited to see what great work Brian will do with the village leaders and the students in Tanzania. Plus, we'll have a wealth of reports, images and updates coming our way for the 2 months he is there - living in the village with Jane and Ashahadu.
Finally, Project Wezesha co-founder Rai Farrelly will be going back to Tanzania this summer for the month of July to check in, get reports from teachers about students' progress and continue to strengthen the important relationships we've developed over the years!
All the best and please, continue to follow us on Facebook and share updates with your friends. We need all the support we can get in order to make this educational initiative sustainable!
Cheers,
Rai Farrelly & Lucas Lameck
Links:
Dear Girls Ed Liberia Project Supporters,
We have received report cards for the first semester for our high school students and are very pleased to report that they are doing very well, all of them receiving solid marks of no less than a B. One of the girls, Patience, has actually been ranked the top in her class!
We are also happy to report that Veronica continues to meet her requirements at nursing school and we anticipate Girls Ed will see our first nurse come from the program over these next couple years!
The successes of these girls have been made possible through your generosity. We truly appreciate your support and want to share with you an opportunity to see your contributions expanded! On March 13, 2013, Global Giving will match all contributions of up to $1000 at 30% until they have exhausted their $50,000 fund. If you were planning to donate this would be a fantastic time!
With Gratitude,
Loni
