Education Pakistan Project #18577

Adult Literacy Education For Women in Rural Sindh

A microproject by Primary Education Project / Diocese of Hyderabad

Project Report | Aug 3, 2016
Impact Of Adult Literacy Education

By Hannah Valentine | Public Relations Officer

The Background Of Women In Rural Sindh:

Many communities of Rural Sindh follow the traditionalistic customs of the patriarchs. The patriarch customs and traditions have a huge impact on the women of rural Sindh. In most communities the women are not allowed to travel out of their village which is the reason they are deprived of basic knowledge and face health issues. But these traditions and customs are so deeply rooted in the heart of each individual that one has to make tremendous efforts to help the tribal people understand the benefits of education.

Education A Scarcity:

Education in rural Sindh is a scarcity. Because people are moving in the cycle of poverty and injustice, it is hard for a person to arrange for the children to go to a school. The schools are quite far away from the villages that only very few boys and 1 out of 5 girls make the efforts to attend.

Due to long distances, fees issues, bonded labor, and cultural practices, girls are the most deprived of education. When a survey was taken in some of the rural Sindh villages, it was found that only 23% of the women in rural Sindh were educated and the rest of the 85% were without education.

Adult Literacy Education:

Due to such a low number of the literacy rate the Women's Empowerment Programme devised a sub project that is known as Adult Literacy Project. This project was piloted in the month of March 2016 to help women receive education. Through this programme 39 women out of 812 women received the classes of Adult Literacy Education.

One of the villages in rural Sindh, Khawaja Goth, was active during the 5months in providing and accommodating the 39 women in a PEP school, Rakhesir School (Khawaja Goth). The timings of the classes were from 2:00 to 4:30pm that allowed the women to finish their work at home or fields and join in the Adult Literacy Classes.

The Change/ Impact:

The Adult Literacy Education has a great impact on the women who were regularly attending the classes. The Adult Literacy Education has empowered the women and equipped them with skills that they would not be able to imagine if it was not for what they learnt in the past five months.

Some of the benefits the women are having:

Benefits

Can write their own names.
Make a grocery list on their own.
Checking their children school home work.
Understand the health issues.
Starting small enterprises.
Making handicraft and selling out.
Use of mobile phones.

A New Way Of Living:

Adult Literacy Education needs to spread out more as there are many women still who need to be empowered through education. Through education most women can easily have access to women rights, and can educate their children as well as start their own small businesses that will help them develop a new way of living and give them long term benefits for the future.

Primary Education Project has planned to take the Adult Literacy Project further and help more women of rural Sindh to gain education and break the cycle of poverty. The testimonies of Waali and Reema, members of the Women's Empowerment Programme will give you an in depth knowledge of the work for women going on in rural Sindh.

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Mar 31, 2016
Importance Of Adlt Literacy Education In Sindh

By Hannah Valentine | Public Relations Officer

Bhagwani

Adult literacy in developing countries has lower rates than in developed countries, and the effects on social status are devastating. Illiterates are stuck in a rut of poverty and are incapable of working higher paying jobs. In developing countries where literacy rates are lower, poverty comes with challenges of education. Schools are few and far between and funds to operate the schools are just as scarce. Illiterate adults, especially women, struggle to find a voice in their communities, and severe gender discrimination affects many.

Because of having no Adult literacy education in areas of rural Sindh, women are especially becoming the target of discrimination. There is a struggle for women's rights, status, opportunities to grow, and gender equality.

Take Bahgwani for example. She was uneducated and got married when she only became a teenager. Since then, Bhagwani continued to live in a bound culture where women had less or no freedom to live out their rights. She realized that by not having an education how it was difficult for a woman to live in a society. She couldn't help her children in getting an education, neither was she able to help her husband in meeting their financial needs.

"I don't want my children to be uneducated like me. I want them to have what I couldn't, and that is education, respect, and a good life", says Bhagwani.

Bhagwani has a heart that wants herself and her family to be educated. She was joyous and almost tearful when she learned about Women's Empowerment Programme in her village.

After joining Women's Empowerment Programme at PEP, Bhagwani now has the opportunity to educate other women about the importance of education. With WEG's help she has started to learn how to read books on her own and is even helping the Women's Empowerment Programme to start an Adult Literacy course for all the members.

Join Bhagwani and many other women in establishing a proper Adult Literacy Centre in rural Sindh because they believe in change through education.

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