Keep her in school

And at the center of all this are our primary leaving pupils—47 children this year, sitting for their exams in a brick classroom with no glass in the windows. For most, passing means escaping early marriage, casual labor on neighbors’ cassava farms, or the quiet belief that a girl’s future ends at the well.

But last term, something shifted. After our “Visible Roots” approach, we started tracking not just exam scores, but small, daily signs of persistence. For example:

· Grace (13 years old) walked 7 km each way to borrow a math book. She never missed a Monday—not once, not even when it rained. Her attendance is now part of our monthly voice testimonies, in her own words.

· The PLE candidates' morning attendance rate rose from 61% to 89% in four months, once parents realized their children's faces would appear in the weekly “school data ” pinned at the in the classroom s. No one wanted their child to be the missing face.

Our transparent reporting now includes a “PLE Candidate Spotlight” —a simple chart showing:

· Number of pupils who have received all three required textbooks: up from 12 to 41

· Number who ate a meal before exam prep class: up from 7 to 33

· Number who can name a career they are working toward: 0 last year → 27 this year

Why does this matter to a donor? Because when you see Grace’s face—not as a statistic, but as a girl who cried when she finally solved a fractions problem alone—you understand that transparency is not about impressing you. It is about inviting you into the dirt-floor classroom where the future of a village is being decided.

Thank you for making sure our primary leaving pupils are not invisible. Because of you, their struggle is seen. And because it is seen, it can no longer b

e ignored.

---