By Susan Bachar | Executive Director
Construction on the girls dormitory is complete and we are ready to launch The Kupanda Project for Girls™ in early 2016! This means that 96 girls from an impoverished rural communtiy in northern Tanzania will begin their four year journey to get a a quality secondary education.
Research shows secondary education is the most powerful tool for empowering girls in less developed countries to improve their lives and create change in their communities. With Tanzania struggling with some of the worst rates of education for girls, the Kupanda pilot project was designed to prove that comprehensive support for girls is a more effective intervention for improving lower secondary school completion rates, as opposed to disparate and discreet solutions that are not improving the overall success rate of girls in school. The Kupanda model brings together the following services and programs for girls to address the myriad challenges they face when trying to get a secondary education: 1) Safe Housing, 2) Personal Support, 3) Academic Support, 4) Leadership & Empowerment Training, and 5) Community Engagement & Education. The Kupanda pilot project will serve a total of 144 girls between 2015 – 2018, at which time we expect completion rates to rise from the current 4% to between 50-80%. Once we proved our theory of change that girl’s completion rates will increase as a result of holistic support, then we will have a model that can be replicated in rural communities across Tanzania and other East African countries.
We look forward to updating you on the girls' progress in a few months!
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