EDUCATION
WE SUPPORT TUITION
KNOWLEDGE IS POWER
Our Mission & Vision
Education is a tool for independence, enabling communities to grow beyond their imagination.
Access to education continues to be a vital issue around the globe, especially for young women and girls. It is felt, by organizations like the United Nations, that the strength of a country is directly affected by the strength of its educational programs.
We noticed one year that Burkina Faso, which was in a state of peacetime, ranked lower than other countries who were at war. When we studied further we saw that even though these countries were at war, they also had a higher education rate in which boys AND girls received access to school. From the perspective of the United Nations, having access to education is considered crucial to the core stability of the country. This does not mean war is not a concern, it means valuing education is essential. Although Burkina Faso faces other issues which drop their ranking, education is a key point.
In many countries, however, education is not free. Even if you are in a small, overfilled classroom with minimal supplies, you are required to pay tuition. If you have little or no money, then paying for your children to receive even a basic education seems impossible.
This is a main reason why we give tuition support to girls first, then to orphans. These two groups benefit greatly from focused attention. Currently in Africa, access to education is challenged. In Burkina Faso, for example, only 22 to 27% of its people receive any formal education. In the villages this percentage is even less.
In the USA, 99% of children attend school. And many of these schools are free to attend!
UNDERSTANDING THE SITUATION
UNESCO FINDING
According to data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), as of 2018 about 263 million children, adolescents and youth worldwide are out of school. This is 1 in every 5 kids. Despite all the work to change this, the ratio has remained the same the last 5 years.
This number varies by age group. At the primary school age (about 6 to 11 years) the rate has stayed constant at 9% — or 63 million — out of school. A similar number of lower secondary school (about 12 to 14 years) students are without school. About 139 million of upper secondary school age kids (15 to 17 years), or 1 in 3, are not currently in school.
For sub-Saharan Africa, the UIS tracks that 1 in every 3 children, adolescents and youth are out of school. Also that girls are more likely to be excluded that boys.
FROM UNICEF
99% of children in the United States attend school.
But only 27% of children in Burkina Faso do.
And that is reduced to 2-3% in remote villages.
A LITTLE MAKES A BIG DIFFERENCE
In a country like Burkina Faso, $50 can go a long way. It can pay for a year of grade school. However even if enrolled a child may face additional obstacles. These include accessibility of schools (some children live miles away from the nearest school), keeping up with school dues and overcrowded classrooms (some classrooms have over 100 students per teacher).
Access to water plays another factor, especially for girls. Since girls and women generally are the ones to go and collect water every day for their families, if water sources are too far away, by the time they return school is partially over. If they continue to fall behind and miss other days, which is likely, then they give up altogether.
There must be a better way.
The purpose of our educational initiatives is to close the gaps in the systems we can do something about. $50 is the cost of your weekly drink orders at your favorite coffee shop. But $50 for a kid in Burkina Faso can mean gaining access to learning and knowledge for a whole year. A small sacrifice on our end creates a big impact on the other.
We are currently in the process of exploring how we can expand our educational support to kids in the Indian and Nepalese communities we work in. We are still waiting to see how our project in Kenya plays out, but it was clear in our visits that support is needed there as well.
