This project provides school fees through O level, sanitary ware, school uniforms, & mentor sessions to 30 out-of-school women and girls, with a specific emphasis on women who fell pregnant as teens. Beneficiaries are chosen based on need and desire to re-enter school and are chosen from Form 1 up. Depending on age, they enter regular HS classes or non-formal education classes after the regular school day. The project will also caters for girls who dropped out during COVID 19 Lockdowns.
The latest statistics: the National Assessment on Out of School Children in Zimbabwe 2015 indicates that 1,234,641 children between 3 and 16 are out of school. It is saddening to note that financial constraints linked to household poverty are a major cause of school dropouts. Poor families cannot afford all the direct & indirect costs of education and the girl child is suffering the most, often forced to drop out before form 3. Of the 134,055 out of school children in Harare 70,499 are girls.
The project will identify and take 30 girls and women back to school. The beneficiaries will also get school uniforms and sanitary pads to reduce chances of absenteeism, as some girls miss school every month due to lack of sanitary ware. The girls undergo mentoring sessions to ensure that they are ready for any barriers that may push them out of school & to prepare them for after school. This project will reduce the number of out-of-school girls and will become a strong case to the community.
The project will provide 30 girls with education, empowering them to be productive members of their families and society and to be better equipped to fight poverty. This will reduce their chances of early marriages and other vulnerabilities that come with a lack of education and information. These girls will go on to become a mass of educated and enabled role models, contributing to society and ensuring that advocacy for, and access to, education in the community continues.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).