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Sydney Stochl Another reason for the lack of education for girls is a plain lack of money. Many countries cannot afford to provide an education for all the children in the country. In fact just to education all the children in Africa it is estimated that the continent would need, "some three billion US dollars per year" (Nduru). The Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) is one group taking action about the need for education in Africa. FAWE has been working on a project of providing scholarships and so far they have "assisted 55 girls in Kenya and 240 girls in Zimbabwe" (Nduru). There are many organizations out there like FAWE, that are doing whatever they can to help with the effort to educate girls, but their efforts would be so much more powerful if there were a bigger money supply to support them. It is true that educating girls is the first step in ending poverty in third world counties. By educating women the community as whole benefits. There are many benefits to educating women including: lowering infant mortality, improving health, wiping out HIV/AIDS and other diseases, and preventing trafficking and sexual exploitation. Overall, educating women would raise the quality of life in many countries. It would increase the awareness in those countries. Girls who are educated in their childhood are also more likely to educate their children. Thus ending the spiral of uneducated girls and reversing it to create a cycle of educated girls. As it is said in the BAP report, "education is the gateway to equal access to information, opportunity, self determination, and political and social empowerment" (GAP). The main way to
end this problem is through personal interaction and involvement and
financial support and education. Actually traveling to a country where
education is a problem is a life changing experience and really opens a
person's eye to the severity of the situation. A person cannot really
comprehend the problem unless they have seen it first hand. Of course
financial support is necessary in any case to solve a problem like this. In
many countries, such as Tanzania, the government does not have the money to
support public education and the people do not have the money to pay for the
education for their children. It is not a case that they do not want their
children to be educated it is a case that they just do not have the funds to
provide and education for their children. Another way to help is just by
helping people understand what education can do for them and how it can
significantly change their lives. Also helping governments understand that
education should be a priority in their budget and how they can best provide
education for all the people in their country.
There are many ways that we as individuals and as a Holy Names community
could help the problem of education in other countries. One was is just
talking to children in other countries to lean what their situation is
really like and getting their perspective on what they think will help
educate people in their community. This many be very hard because
communication can be difficult because not all people have access to the
Internet or the money to send mail. But I have kept in contact with some of
the children that I met while I was in Tanzania and I really enjoy hearing
from them. Another way that we as a community can help is to raise money and
make sure that the money goes to the right people. Money is a very big issue
for people in third world countries and one of the main reasons why people
are not educated. Raising money could provide children with scholarships and
school with the money to expand or lower tuition or many other things that
the school may need, such as supplies or textbooks. Another thing that we as
a community could do is just to raise awareness. Before I went to Tanzania I
was not really aware of the extreme lack of education in some countries and
Tanzania is not the worst of the worst. Now that I have come back I really
realize that I want to do something to help, I am just not sure how to go
about doing that. One thing that the group of students is doing now that we
are back is selling goods that we bought in Tanzania for higher prices than
what we bought them for and sending the profit back to a school. Another
thing that we as individuals can do is make sure we buy things that are fair
trade and support stores like 10,000 Villages that are fair trade. In
this way we are supporting the prospering of communities and the flourishing
of education. There are many things that can be done it is just a question
of who is willing to take the initiative to support these people and give
them a voice in our community so that others will know about the problems
that face those less fortunate than we.
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