Stop inequality in education, we want Tanzanian girls to school. They are oppressed and hardly graduate from secondary schools. Through sports, health and life-skills education, 13 to 19 years old girls learn health and life-skills, increasing their self-awareness & confidence, academic performance, reduce teenage pregnancies and raise awareness of their rights. Influential community members and traditional initiation leaders are mobilized to improve girl friendliness in communities.
Obstacles such as; teenage pregnancies; gender-based violence; harassment in and on the way to school; negative parental attitudes towards girls' education; lack of positive female role models; and girls' low expectations of employability after education are hindering girls' education in Mtwara, where girls' poor academic performance in secondary schools is a huge problem. In 2015, in our nine project schools, only 9% of the girls passed their secondary school final examinations and graduated.
'Girls' Action Clubs' in the project schools provide a safe space for girls to share experiences and learn essential life skills and Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights. Action Clubs utilize sports, drama and dance to enable active learning and attract members. By organizing and training traditional initiation ritual leaders on the importance of girls' education and health, we create sustainability and change views concerning traditional gender roles.
The project will increase the number of girls graduating from secondary school, enabling them to continue to further studies and acquire employment, which will reduce their vulnerability and poverty. By empowering girls to protect themselves and claim their rights we increase gender equality and well being of the whole communities. In two years, we have improved girls' graduation rates in our nine project schools from 9 % to 24 %. However, we want to see all the enrolled girls graduating!
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
