Empowering Girls

We must be dedicated to empower school girls and to improve conditions for all girls in Benin and Niger through advocacy for safer and more affordable education.

We need to meet commitments to universal primary education and strengthen opportunities for postprimary education for girls and women, to invest in infrastructure to reduce time burdens of women and girls (transport, water, sanitation), to guarantee property and inheritance rights to women and girls, eliminate gender inequality in employment, and to combat violence against girls and women,

It is unacceptable to still find girls in Republic of  Benin and Niger forced to work from dawn to dusk! NO! We must promote the rights of children, and especially girls, the right to receive a free, meaningful education and to be free from economic exploitation. In most countries in the Middle East, North Africa, sub-Saharan Africa, and South Asia, the gender gap is huge in primary schooling. The overwhelming majority of girls either have never gone to school or have dropped out to work.

Lack of education, early marriages, poverty, and lack of power/empowerment makes girls vulnerable!

Empowering Girls & Women

Women and girls are the one who suffer from the burden of extreme poverty in our rich world! In our non-governmental organization, which I have created (but still waiting for the Ministry of Interior approval in order to be officially registered), we are committed to end poverty by attacking its roots. 

We will build more schools and I will fight for the rights of girls to be educated. I will fight for laws that will promote universal basic education for girls. I would like to set up a women saving groups that will pool resources to finance individual small businesses. 

I will try to find the necessary funding which will be needed to help girls and women to succeed in schools and to read and write in order to be free in their society. With education, women can become the catalysts for change. I would like to instill in all the girls in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia the significance of advanced education. 

I would like to help women to have access to better health systems and to help them combat infectious diseases in order to take care of their own children and themselves. I will try to install more water pumps in villages where girls have to walk miles away to fetch water instead of going to school.

In our NGO, we will address gender inequities. Most of the women are poor, they suffer discrimination, and they are vulnerable. I am also studying a micro-credit finance schemes that will empower our women and make them less susceptible to the domination of men in their villages. An efficient micro-credit program targeted specifically to poor women in order to empower them financially and psychologically.

I would like to help eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education in Benin, Niger, and Algeria. If more women become literate, they will have more voice in decision-making and they will have better jobs. If women are educated, they will be empowered financially and socially. Therefore, their self esteem will be tremendously improved. Un-empowered women are more vulerable to health problems such as HIV/Aids. Indeed, by giving women more access to funds and social networks will help them be financially independent. 

Women produce 80 percent of the planet's food but they receive less than 10 percent of agriculture help and they own about 1 percent of the world's land. C'est une abberation, n'est ce pas!

Beninese and Nigériennes women have to trek miles daily to fetch water, accompanied by a girl child, amidst the other normal daily chores. Girls stay at home to watch younger siblings or maintain the house. And most of the families do not invest in a girl's education because one day she will marry and she will go into another family.

I will select areas where girls do no go to schools or where the government is dysfunctional. First, I will assess whether the people are ready to help or no and then I will try to mobilize women to be active in changing their communities. 

We can fight poverty by empowering girls & women. I have decided to establish this non governmental organization to highlight women's issues and to help them take ownership of their own identity.

 Education plays an important role in the empowerment of girls and women. Education plays such an important role in enabling girls to access and secure their rights.

Benin: Making School Safe for Girls

"In the West African country of Benin, harassment of girls in school has been commonplace. Approximately half of girls in Benin enroll in school and many end up dropping out because of the hostile environment created by continual pressure for sexual favors from teachers or fellow students. Girls who report sexual harassment often are accused of leading a teacher on and may be forced to drop out of school by parents as a result."

Wible (2004) found that 43 percent of primary and 80% of secondary students in Benin dropped out of school because of sexual abuse.

"In Benin, a small nation on the west coast of Africa, many girls opt out of school because they are sexually harassed by teachers," Neylon said. With no punishment for the men, some girls find it easier to drop out of school. About 50 percent of girls enroll in primary school and a majority of them drop out by secondary school, according to UNICEF. Only 25 percent of Benin women age 15 and older are literate. The Republic of Benin's National Assembly voted July 17 to pass the country's first comprehensive sexual harassment legislation aimed at protecting girls and women in schools, workplaces and in homes, according to the Women's Rights Initiative, a program of the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Sexual violence to girls and women in schools is happening all around the world! Very few female teachers work in schools. Consequently, girls are likely to be sexually exploited by their male teachers. 

A study by Rossetti (2001, cited in Davies), found that 67 percent of students in Botswana schools had been subjected to sexual harassment by teachers. Twenty percent of these students were propositioned by their teacher for sex. In Ghana, 13.5 percent of girls in both primary and secondary schools were victims of sexual abuse at school (Brown, 2002). Amnesty International reported that 50 percent of Malawi girls experienced unwanted sexual touching by their teachers or male classmates. According to the World Bank, 8% of school girls from Cameroon were sexually abused by their teachers. A student in Uganda reported that one of her male teachers required that she wash his feet, take water to the bathroom, and when he appeared naked asked her to "help him as a man" (Action Aid).

Teachers need to be trained in sexual harassment, gender equality, and discipline procedures that are respectful of the dignity of women and men. Students must learn about sexual violence, female equality, good communication skills, boundaries and respect of gender differences. 

The schools do not operate in a vacuum! It is a reflection of society's mores and values. Each community should create their own solutions to the problem of gender violence. We have to use the mass media programs on radio, television, town posters, and the Internet. We must listen to students because they have some of the best problem solving capabilities about this issue. A holistic approach, integrating agencies, NGOs, governments, and individuals will give us the chance to get rid of sexual harassment.

We must STOP violence in schools! It is an overwhelming task which will require from us to change the cultural belief systems about patriarchy, masculine hegemony, and girls and women's values in our society.