Challenges
| Town | Number |
|---|---|
| KAOLACK | 300 |
| KAFFRINE | 200 |
| KAYEMOR | 80 |
| NDOFFANE | 175 |
| NIORO | 250 |
| DIOSSONG (FATICK) | 55 |
| TOTAL | 1060 |
Sometimes the greatest challenge to an individual girl's success in school--and later, in life--is her own family.
Traditionally, parents in rural West Africa believe that girls will not do well in school. It would be better, they think, for a daughter to learn how to run a household and hope to marry a good husband. So ironically, by wanting the best for their daughters, parents often end up making the worst decisions.
As the statistics reveal, in the Kaolack Region, only one out of every twenty-five girls eligible for High School has been enrolled in High School. Only 4%.
But even when parents don't hold traditional cultural attitudes towards education, their daughters still face an uphill struggle.Please consider this. Our survey found that girls are required to assist in most of the domestic chores. Furthermore, as a girl grows older, her household tasks and familial responsibilities increase.
Little time is left for study. When the daughter seems to--or starts to--be doing poorly in school, her parents are caught in a development dilemma. If the daughter doesn't pass her exams, she'll risk being expelled from public school. But if the same daughter does not undertake an increasing array of domestic responsibilities, she seems both a burden to her family and not the best candidate for a traditional marriage.
Hence why the 10,000 Girls program works with parents as well as daughters. To understand and respect concerns. But also to inform, implore, educate and change. To establish familial support networks.
In bi-monthly meetings, parents are given a concrete picture of a different future. A mother and a father are helped to understand how education provide their daughter with a better life for all.
The parents also realise that the 10,000 Girls program, with their co-operation, provides for their daughter the organizational support necessary for her progress and potential career.This is not about spending money on technology. Or high-priced consultants. Or issuing unfunded and impractical mandates.
In contrast, this is about achieving sustainable results. By perhaps the only way possible. Working with people. Developing relationships, support networks. Changing attitudes. Dealing head-on with the primary challenges these girls face on the way to success.
We live in, work in, and are of the Kaolack community. But because the 10,000 Girls program is a grassroots effort, it can not only survive but has now started to thrive what might otherwise seem a hostile environment.For 2006, the 10,000 Girls program is proud to count over 1000 parents as part of our educational support network.
