We help get girls off the street and into school in one of the world's most notorious slums in Liberia, West Africa. We started sponsoring girls at an already existing school, but its standards were very low. Now, we've been able to open our own More Than Me Academy, where our students will receive a real education based on international standards. We currently serve 120 girls, but the MTM Academy can serve up to 240. One day, we hope to have a boarding school that will support 500+ girls
73% of Liberian children are denied an education - over 80% of them are girls (UNESCO). A girl denied an education, is a girl on the street. It's a girl who's exploited and condemned to underemployment. The ripple of effect of this denial of her basic right is seen in the stagnation of her wages, her susceptibility to exploitation and disease, and even her children's future education.
Educating a girl changes, well, everything. We get Abigail and other girls off the street and into school in one of the world's most dangerous slums in the world in Liberia. We work with community leaders to identify the girls who are at the highest risk of being sexually exploited to ensure that education and opportunity, not exploitation and poverty, shape their lives. We pay tuition and provide them school lunch. We work with the school and community to make it impossible for them to fail.
Educating one girl changes, well, everything. Here's why: When a girl in the developing world receives seven or more years of education, she marries 4 years later and has 2.2 fewer children. An extra year of primary school boosts girls' eventual wages by 10 to 20%. An extra year of secondary school: 15 to 25%. When women and girls earn income, they reinvest 90% of it into their families. When we invest in girls we all win.
This project has provided additional documentation in a Microsoft Excel file (projdoc.xls).
