By Keturah Shammah | Executive Director
Dear friends and supporters of Girls Education Mission International,
On behalf of the entire GEM Community, I would like to thank you for your love, care and concern towards our work. With your support, we are beginning to accomplish more; early this year, we were able to launch our monthly sanitary pad distribution program. During the first week of January 2016, GEM team has visited the first club meeting of its two GEM Impact clubs in Saminaka District of Kaduna state to distribute sanitary pads to girls who represents various secondary schools. The distribution of the sanitary products is expected to be carried out every month during the GEM clubs’ monthly meetings. These monthly distributions of the pads aim to help keep the girls in schools who might otherwise miss three to seven days of school monthly or are at risk of dropping out because of their monthly periods. ‘Grace John’ is a member of the Girls Club visited and she said, “we stay at home because we are afraid of being stained and feel ashamed of being embarrassed by our male counterparts”. The pads give girls the ability to fully and confidently participate in school activities. The monthly pad distribution during the club monthly meeting also provides an opportunity for girls to learn how to use a sanitary pad, earn health reproductive education and have chance to stay healthy.
As part of our ongoing #GirlsEducationNowOrNever global campaign pilot project in Nigeria, One priority project we will be committing significant fund to in 2016 is the continue distribution of pads, donations of funds worth of scholarship, award of all kinds of educational materials such as school uniforms, bags, book, mathset, shoes, socks and other relevant educational support which is aimed at supporting the education of girls who are at-risk of dropping out. This year, the program is intended to distribute about 500 sanitary pads monthly to different GEM Impact clubs in primary and secondary schools in Northern parts of Nigeria.
Currently, 18 girls have been interviewed and screened to participate in the Girls Education Submit scheduled to take place by late January this year and thereafter receive the above mentioned support. The aim of the Education submit is to enable girls become aware of possible challenges they may encounter at the course of their schooling and to equip the girls with skills to overcoming such barriers facing their education and development. During the summit, Girls are also introduced to various developmental opportunities.
“Laitu is a 19 year old girl who had to drop out from school when she was about to write her junior secondary certificate examination. Her mother who has being her sponsor could not afford to pay her school fees and examination fee as well. Consequently, Laitu left her village to Lagos which is the largest industrial city in Nigeria to work as a nanny in other to raised money for her education. Having worked for five months without payment, she decided to come back home with a hopeless life and at-risked of arranged marriage. Fortunately for Laitu, she now has hope of going back to school after meeting with the GEM Executive Director who after an intensive counseling session, have assured her of reinstatement back to school by Girls Education Mission International. Laitu is one of the expected participants of the forth coming Girls Education Submit. She is to also among those to enjoy full scholarship including educational materials.”
We would like to thank you our donors for your generosity. Without your support and participation in this project, it would not have been possible for us to change the lives of vulnerable girls like Laitu and many others. Together, we will draw attention to the challenges and the opportunities that are uniquely affecting the education of the girl child. GEM takes every gift seriously and seeks to leverage and steward them correctly for the betterment of the hard to reach girls who are deprived of education and training opportunities to lead a better life
Unfortunately, we are unable to reach the required goal of $5000 from 40 donors which let globalgiving to deactivate our project making it unable to receive donations. However, we hope to do more with you in our next participation for the March 2016 Open Challenge, beginning March 14th and ending March 25th.
As we begin our work for the year 2016, here is wishing you a great experience for the year. May it be a year of prosperity and peace for you and your loved ones?
Girls Education Mission International’s team.
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