Woman’s education rights around the world- speech assessment

PART 1:

Imagine your a 12 year old girl living in rural Africa; You love school; love your friends; and enjoy learning new things each and everyday.  But when it comes to secondary school your forced to drop out. Mum can no longer pay for tuition fees; food; transport; uniforms.  A financial burden your living in.  You now have to work to help your siblings. You are young and vulnerable from being out of school. You get married at 14; have a kid and by the age of twenty have 5 more. Did I mention you are 3 times more likely to contract HIV and aids then from your classmates in school.  Your children are likely to become malnourished, picking up deadly diseases.

You have no power.  No say over your life.

Saudi Arabian woman are living in a crisis, The governments large system of gender based laws Punish woman for leaving the house without a male companion. Woman who are seen socializing with a male outside there family is seen as a punishing crime.

But the largest raise of concern right now, is a woman’s right to education.

Countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan are already leading this crisis. Girls living in conflict zones makes it particularly hard for schooling to become an option.  15 million girls primary school age would have never set a foot into a classroom. Families fear that their child will be a boy as they already know how hard a woman’s life can be without the same privileges. In Burkina Faso only 1% of girls complete secondary school. The statistics don’t get any better, In Niger only 17% of all females are literate. This isn’t something to look away from. Girls all around the globe live in fear of speaking out about their own rights, as that is something to look down on. Thousands of women have been silenced, Many by war and death, A severe punishment for speaking out for woman all around the worlds education rights.

But in 2012 one of the biggest events for women’s education focused on how serious this matter actually is.

 

Malala

On October the 9th 2012, a young Malala who was only 15 years of age, boarded her local school bus en route to her house, when a masked Taliban member boarded the bus directing her to give her full name, malala got fatally shot in the head, neck and shoulder. She survived the attack but was immediately flown to England hospital for surgery. This incident caused protests and immediately her cause was taken up around the world. That cause was women’s rights to education. Malala became an advocate to women’s education rights and shortly getting out of hospital the Malala fund was established. This launched over a $10 million education fund towards supporting of girls education around the globe.

She later went on to become an activist for women’s education in England and became a Nobel prize winner.

Malala’s was only 11 years old we she started speaking out for women’s rights. Malala was only one voice out of many; Michelle Obama has become an activist to women’s education throughout the years, Obama launched Let Girls Learn, an initiative to help adolescent girls across the globe have access to schools.  Shakira, A superstar pop artist, is a passionate advocate to her campaign and a member of the global Education commission.  For years there was this glimpse of light for woman speaking out about their rights to school and education. But yet still in some Islamic and middle east countries, women’s schooling is dramatically dropping. On the verge of becoming abolished.

How do we fix this?

Why on such a global scale are woman not getting education?

Why should WE make awareness of this issue?

The fact right now is that 62 million girls worldwide are not in school, and these girls are so bright and intelligent and they are so hungry to learn, but they cant be provided to fulfill their potential in their countries and communities.

PART 2:

What are the factors/barriers holding girls from attending school?

Despite further progress girls face multiple barriers stopping them from attending school. These may include, Age, Ethnicity, Poverty, disabilities and gender. Throughout countries harmful gender stereotypes have been placed to stop women from educating.

These schools should focus on abolishing gender stereotypes and confronting these barriers, but instead women have to face backlash from curriculum, textbooks and teachers. This causes a wide range of effects throughout a girls life, from the course options and subjects they are limited to, which influences their further employment rates.

Another serious factor stopping girls from stepping into the classroom, is child marriage and pregnancies. More than 41,000 girls under age of 18 marry a DAY.  Every year that’s 15 million underage girls getting married. Globally it is estimated that there are 720 million underage women alive today that were married before age 18.  That’s 10% of the worlds population. Child marriage is everywhere but most prevalent in South Asia with 45% of girls married by 18,  And in sub – Saharan Africa 39%.  Girls that marry before the age of 12 have a 21% chance of starting secondary school.

Linked to child marriage is early unintended pregnancies, In common conflict zones this can be a result from rape.  Motherhood at early ages has a serious impact on their own education. Many schools ban teens  from attending school when pregnant. Many of these woman do not re enter education.

 

 

PART 3:

why should we help/ who can help?

An organization called Woman. education. CARE,  specializes in implementing gender-synchronized approaches when it come to schooling. They identify and address the unique barriers that keep girls out of school, While at the same time working with boys and men to help identify and discuss these such barriers.  These projects are extremely important to build equitable environments through which all female students can learn to thrive and grow.

Another organization is the Cam Fed campaign. They target young Woman particularly in African regions that are in need of serious funding. One of the inspirational stories to come out of this was young Salin from Zambia. Salin was orphaned after her parents both died from a year within each other, she had no education from primary school and was living in a small modest house with her other siblings and cousins, all together there were 11 underage people living in her home. She struggled to attend school as she was not able to pay the tuition fees and look after her siblings. Cam-fed campaign picked up on this immediately and got Salin and her 11 family members to a local high school, all funded by this organization. With there help thousands of young striving woman were able to reach their potential.

Imagine all of you in this class contributing to that. Well guess what, you can! $20 per month can send a girl to school for a year.  Your gift to a campaign can provide uniforms, school supplies and exam fees, simple things that can keep a girl out of school because the cost is too big for her family.

For 18 years me and my mum have sponsored girls in Uganda.  Nora was 11 years of age when we started sponsoring her, she is now in her twenties and has been through full education. She was not married young, she didn’t contract any diseases, she was able to pursue her life and start a healthy family in her community. All this for just $35 a month. My mum had always said to me, the day that we cant afford to to spend $35 is the day we give up Sky TV, then after that it will be Netflix. Why are WE all are living a very fortunate life full of opportunities and freedom.

“one child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world”

 

Thank you :))