Finishing school empowers girls for a brighter tomorrow.

Why should we help girls in particular?

Girls in East Africa are marginalized. They are enrolled in secondary schools at far lower rates than boys. An even smaller proportion finish secondary compared to boys. They face sexual violence, self-esteem issues, dependence on men for basic needs, forced marriage, and rates of sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS of 2:1 relative to boys in the same age group. Girls need help.


Tanzania girl education statistics

• In Dar es Salaam, 82 precent of boys pass the PSLE (Primary Schoole Leaving Examination). 66 percent of girls passed the exam, which allow them to continue to secondary school. Uwazi. 2008.

• When a girl in the developing world receives seven or more years of education, she marries four years later and has 2.2 fewer children. (United Nations Population Fund, State of World Population 1990.) See our fact sheet from GirlEffect.org for more eye-opening statistics.


Lenana.net research 2010: Girls in secondary school

Kellen is in East Africa from August 2010 till early 2011, where she’ll be working on strengthening existing Lenana.net projects and doing leg work for future research on girls in secondary school:


Factors contributing to girls’ success in secondary school

• Will look at teachers, role models, motivation, self-esteem, security (does she know how school fees will be paid)


Factors contributing to girls’ failure in secondary school

  1. •Will visit girls in their villages who were kicked out of secondary school for pregnancy

  2. •Will look at causes for low self-expectation

  3. •Will look at role of girls’ dependence on unrelated men for basic needs/school fees as a factor in sexual behavior


We’ll occasionally post stories from our research and we will have some of our findings online in early 2011. We hope that the findings can be used to improve the percentage of girls who stay in school and succeed on the national exams. We want real-life examples of girls empowered to succeed, and provide testamony to younger students that they, too, can make it.


Our game plan for doing this is at http://lenana.net/blog/?p=205. The club was started in October 2010 at Enaboishu Secondary School as a test program and it already has more than 100 girls.

      Girl success

Gender equality

Tanzania ranks in the middle of the pack among developing countries. Genderindex.org puts it at 53 out of 102 in their gender equality index. There are 30 women in parliament and there are constitutional protections specifically for women. Cultural practices and poverty (lack of options) can interfere with the legal system’s ability to work for women.


FGM

Female genital mutilation is illegal, but not uncommon — especially among some tribes in northern and central Tanzania. It’s seen as a rite of passage leaving girls ready to be married. But women say it detracts from their ability to enjoy sex and can cause medical problems.


Child marriage

Forced marriage of girls is also a cultural practice that is illegal, but not uncommon in some areas. Girls who are married off usually fetch a brideprice, which is an incentive to continue the practice. We have known girls to be married off as young as 8. These vulnerable girls are more likely than other girls to not attend school. A 2004 UN report estiated a quarter of girls age 15 to 19 had been married.


Fistula

Girls who give birth too young are at greater risk for vaginal fistula, a condition that leaves them unable to control  their urine. Hundreds of operations take place every year but many go unoperated because women either don’t have access to a surgeon or can’t afford the surgery. The average cost for the surgery in a 2001 survey of Tanzanian hospitals was $26 US.


HIV/AIDS

Women also face higher rates of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases than men. Women make up about 59 percent of the 1.3 million Tanzanias age 15 and older living with HIV/AIDS.


Widows’ issues

In many cultures, the land a family lives on belongs to the man of the house, who inherited the land from his father. Should the man die, the land is transferred to his brothers. This practice causes homelessness among widows. Women who are married have a legal right to the land, but often can’t afford to pay for lawyers and have no advocates locally.

RSS: From the blog

Enaboishu Secondary School, where Empowed Girls test program is taking place.