Girls' Education: Successful Grassroots Campaigns

Before I start listing NGOs that are promoting the cause of women's education, I should note that the programs that all these nonprofits support almost always transcend the formal educational process, addressing other women's needs and problems as well. These issues include sex trafficking, female genital cutting, maternal health & family planning, economic empowerment, AIDS/HIV prevention, and women's rights. The reason is that, as many of these problems have cultural roots, education turned out to be the key element in resolving all of them.

For example, one of the most effective ways of preventing girls from being sex trafficked is to keep them in school. Two great ways to achieve this is building schools in rural areas and "bribing" parents for the perfect school attendance of their daughters. Rural School Projects have been implemented around the world. In Cambodia, for example, where many girls end up being trafficked to brothels in Thailand, Rural School Project is supported by American Assistance for Cambodia/Japan Relief for Cambodia (AAfC). The project has built 470 schools all around the country. Donors pay $13,000 and the funds are matched by World Bank and Asian Development Bank; after the schools (with the donors' name on it!) are constructed donors are encouraged to support students by funding improvements for their school, such as computers, Internet access, a water well, or a vegetable garden.

While it is clear that not everybody can afford donating $13,000, this sum is very achievable if the ones who care unite their forces! One of the schools in Cambodia, for example, was fully funded by the Overlake School in America, whose students not only funded the school, but also visited and established life-long relationships with their Cambodian counterparts. Think about how easy and enriching it would be for (a) collegiate student organization(s) to raise this money! The importance of having a school in a village simply cannot be overstated, because a school is the only opportunity that these rural girls have for changing their lives for the better.

American Assistance to Cambodia has established another program, Girls Be Ambitious, that provides families with $10/month if their daughters have perfect school attendance. The logic behind this is that girls in poor rural communities usually have to abandon education and help their family survive by taking jobs far from home or even abroad, often ending up as sex slaves. This way, for $120/month you can fight sex trafficking and save one girls' life.

Tostan is another successful grassroots campaign that concentrates on education, but whose main objective is to stop female genital cutting and promote women's human rights. Cultural awareness of the founder and leadership of African women helped Tostan achieve what no international or governmental organization managed to do- create cultural acceptance of the notion that female genital cutting is damaging for women's health and that an "uncut" woman is no worse and deserves to be married as any woman who has been cut. Tostan was launched in Senegal in 1991 and slowly but surely achieved such results- 2600 villages announced that they had ceased cutting between 2002-2006 - that Senegalese government itself decided to adopt Tostan's approach on the national level. Now Tostan is trying to establish itself in Somalia, Sudan, Chad, Ethiopia, and Central African Republic.

The last two NGOs that I would like to note are:

Afghan Institute of Learning managed to hold classes for girls and boys even during Taliban regime (!) and now provides education, vocational training, and medical help for 350,000 women and children around the country.

CAMFED is a nonprofit that supports girls' education in Africa. Started by a Welsh woman, striving to help girls in Zimbabwe, it now helps girls and boys attend and stay in school, get college scholarships, learn basic economic skills, and start small businesses. Since 1993 Camfed improved the school environment for 1,065,710 children in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, and Ghana. (The picture is CAMFED's "get involved" banner, so I suppose I can use it here.)

As usual most of the information, inspiration, and knowledge I found in "Half The Sky." Let me know, if you would like me to list more similar organizations or maybe NGOs working in specific countries or for a different cause. In my next post I will concentrate on microfinance and how it changes lives all around the developing world.

Ramadan Mubarak-Time To Do Good... For All Of US

The Holy month is coming upon us and, although I am not a Muslim myself and don't even believe in organized religion per se, I see a lot of good meaning and lessons to learn in Ramadan. Besides fasting from sunrise to sunset, there is another important part of Ramadan: to give back to people and to do good. While it is always time to do good and give back, Ramadan serves as a very strong reminder of this human responsibility, at least within the Muslim community. Christian community is, of course, also known for its charity work and has it's own share of "do gooders" all around the world. As Nick Kristof in his book "Half The Sky" points out: "Missionaries have been running indispensable health and education networks in some of the poorest countries for decades." It is true, and I praise all religions and churches for their humanitarian work. Yet, interestingly enough, the root of the word "humanitarian" doesn't have anything to do with religion, but it does with humans.

The reason is that it is our human responsibility to care about others and try to help them. Today, in the 21st century, it has never been easier to save a life! Sometimes it just takes a click, 30 sec to fill out a form, $0.20 for AIDS treatment/per day that will save someone's life, $1 that can provide clean water for 1 person for a whole year, $10 a month to keep a poor Cambodian girl at school so that she doesn't end up trafficked into a brothel, $13,000 to establish a whole school in a developing country and change thousands of lives forever. Forget about money! Now you can even donate your Facebook or Twitter status and spread the word about the cause your care about. CARE. It's really the only thing you need. Because if you care you will find time, money, and opportunities to help. If not, you will simply continue living your comfy life in your 1st world bubble. Because unless you want to know what is going on in Pakistan, Haiti, India, or Africa, unless you are not indifferent, you can simply turn off CNN and decide not to hear about all the poor and dying. Because it is not your business and you are not Angelina Jolie to be saving orphans. Right? NO.

You need to be rich to make a difference, right? Wrong, again. I gave you the amounts that each one of us, especially if you have your own car, especially if you go to college, especially if you eat and go out every now and then, can afford to contribute. (Well, maybe except for $13,000, which is still achievable if we come together.) If you do not have money, you can spread the word and fundraise, let people know about the problem and not all of them will be indifferent, I promise! Don't think that rich are more generous than you and me just because they have more money. In fact, it's the opposite! The study conducted by the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology suggests that people with lower income are willing to donate 44% more of their respective income than their richer counterparts.

The bottom line is this: it is not about money, it is not about time, it is not about religion, skin color, or political affiliation. It's about our common humanity and your personal desire to help.
In my next post, I will post names and brief info about my favorite non-profits, working in various fields and different countries, but serving one goal: to give help where it is needed the most.