Help create new opportunities for girls' education
Currently, only a small number of girls are able to attend the Marial Bai Secondary School—pictured above with Melanie Borgman, a volunteer teacher from New Zealand.
Girls’ education is one of the most challenging tasks in Southern Sudan. As a result of conflict, poverty, lack of access, and other social barriers, less than 1% of girls are studying at the secondary level in Southern Sudan. The illiteracy rate among women is 91%. The situation has improved dramatically since the civil war ended—at that time, research found that a girl in Southern Sudan was more likely to die at childbirth than to finish primary school—but much progress remains to be done.
Early marriages and pregnancies result in extremely high drop-out rates among girls in Sudan. Due to cultural factors in Sudan’s male-dominated society, most families keep girls at home to raise their siblings and help with chores like fetching water or pounding grain. Families are given a 'bride price' on the wedding day, usually paid in cows. In a region wracked by poverty, this often represents the majority of a family's source of income. A teenage girl is far more likely to be married than to be in school.
Research shows that investing in girls’ education helps entire communities prosper. UNICEF reports that educating girls can help decrease poverty, prevent disease, and lessen violence. When a woman prospers, her family prospers. When families prosper, communities prosper.
Girls' dorm at the Marial Bai Secondary School
The Valentino Achak Deng Foundation recently constructed the first high school in Valentino's region of Marial Bai, Southern Sudan. Major focus at the Marial Bai Secondary School is being placed on increasing access to education for young women in the region.
To help more young women attend Valentino's school, we are building a boarding facility for girls. Here are a few ways you can help:
$9 provides a student with a backpack full of school supplies
$30 provides a girl with a full set of textbooks
$75 provides a bunk bed for the dorm
$300 provides a girl's scholarship for a year
$5,000 pays a salary for our first female teachers in 2010
PROVIDING A SAFE PLACE TO LEARN
Currently, there are 14 girls enrolled at the Marial Bai Secondary School. By the start of the next school year in April 2010, we hope to admit 100 girl students. By providing a safe learning environment and an alternative to early marriage, the girls’ dormitory will help prevent drop-outs, and will allow young women from across Southern Sudan to attend the school. To increase enrollment, the Foundation will offer mentor and tutor programs, parent outreach, and life skills training. A matron will be hired to look after the girls in the dorm, and female Sudanese teachers will be recruited to teach at the school.
Our girl students are thrilled to be in school, but they often worry that their families will remove them before they graduate, to be married or to work at home. Valentino often visits the parents of our girl students, and through community advocacy we hope to convince parents of the value of education for girls.
Meanwhile, there are hundreds of young women waiting to attend the Marial Bai Secondary School.
This book by Dave Eggers tells the life story of Valentino Achak Deng, from his pre-war life in southern Sudan to his resettlement in the United States.
