By Sarah Allen | Communications Associate
Despite tremendous global progress over the past decades, girls are still more likely than boys to never set foot in a classroom.
In fact, in sub-Saharan Africa, the average girl will not complete secondary school.
Girls face a breadth of unique barriers that can hamper their education, including attitudes and norms about the role and status of women. And, by the time children begin primary school, most have already formed rigid attitudes about gender by observing their caretakers.
But our 500 Play Labs across Bangladesh, Tanzania, and Uganda, where children ages 3-5 spend the day learning through play as part of an innovative, low-cost approach to early childhood development, are breaking down barriers like these by changing attitudes early on.
Like all of BRAC’s education programs, Play Labs emphasize gender equality as a foundational principle of social transformation. Educated girls are more likely to have decent work and living conditions, delay marriage and families, and have healthier and more educated children – igniting a cycle that brings about positive changes for generations.
Play Labs instructors, known as Play Leaders, are young women drawn from our girls’ empowerment clubs in the same communities, which equip adolescent girls with life skills, livelihood training, and financial education.
These women, who have received training in a variety of topics related to gender and girls’ empowerment, involve caretakers and community members to highlight the value of girls’ education and promote play-based, early childhood learning for all children – ensuring that caretakers and communities are invested in girls from a young age.
Play Leaders also serve as positive role models for girls, and demonstrate to the community the benefits of investing in girls.
Quality education for girls starts with early childhood. Thank you for helping to ensure that all girls can access quality educational opportunities.
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.