Girl Child Education

Why Girl’s Child Education

Education is a fundamental right and a matter of justice. Girls’ education is also key to tackling our most pressing global challenges.

Education is not freely available to everyone – and in many parts of the world, girls are the first to be excluded from it.

CAMFED believes that every child is entitled to quality education in a safe environment, and to a life as an independent adult. With access to education, women can do amazing things: launch climate-smart businesses, become health workers, run schools, and lead governments, making the world a better place for everyone.

Poverty is the greatest barrier to accessing an education

In sub-Saharan Africa, 32.6 million girls of primary and lower secondary school age are out of school. This number rises to 52 million when taking into account girls of upper secondary school age (UNESCO/UIS 2019), with millions more at risk as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

When families lack the income for food, transport, school fees, uniforms, and essentials like sanitary pads, girls are the first to drop out of school.  They are the first to be failed by the system, facing the perils of early marriage, early pregnancy, and abuse. Without the choice to write their own futures, their endless potential is wasted. Investing in girls’ education and young women’s leadership is a proven way of improving the health and wealth of entire nations.

Educating girls:

• is the foundation for gender equity and social justice
• leads to healthier communities and nations, reducing maternal and infant mortality and malnutrition, stunting, HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
• reduces child marriage and gender-based violence
• unlocks women’s leadership for policy change that benefits everyone
• drives economic development, leading to higher productivity and income, tackling youth unemployment and instability
• is one of the most effective ways of tackling climate change, because investing in girls’ education is the foundation for female leadership for climate action, including in climate-smart agriculture, leading to better nutrition, increased resilience to climate shocks, reduced emissions, and a more sustainable future for us all

Kemmongue Foundation aim

Our aim is to ensure that just as the male child is being educated so is the female child.