Women & Girls Initiative

There is little doubt that a gender gap exists in developing nations. Two-thirds of the world’s illiterate people are women, as are 70% of the world’s poor. Africa is part of that pattern, as women and girls lag behind their male counterparts. According to studies by UNICEF, only 76% of girls complete primary grades compared to 87% of boys. By post-secondary, the gap has widened: 1.3% of females to 3.3% of males have continued their education to this level.

This gender discrepancy is more disturbing when taking into account the huge impact that women have on the overall health and well-being of their families. Numerous studies have shown that educated, literate women tend to marry later and raise healthier, more educated children. They also have better economic prospects and are more likely to initiate actions leading to positive social change in their communities.

Women and girls are often responsible for the bulk of the household’s work, such as keeping livestock, caring for children, preparing food, fetching water, collecting firewood, and doing laundry. With these responsibilities, to take a girl out of the household to travel to a distant school becomes difficult. With limited household resources, the educational opportunities for girls are even more limited. Making education accessible, both geographically and financially, is key to increasing education and literacy levels among girls and women.

Project Concept

Books For Africa has a twenty-year history of delivering cost-effective, high-quality books to 44 different countries, working with a variety of partner organizations. For this project, we will expand our network of partners to focus on organizations that concentrate their efforts on women and girls. We are working with partnering NGOs to identify all-girl schools that need resources to increase their capacities to serve more area girls. These partners will then use Books For Africa’s developed inventory form to indicate desired textbooks by subject and age-level. General reading books and basic school supplies will also be available, as will a limited number of desktop and laptop computers. Books will be shipped in 40-foot sea containers, each of which holds about 22,000 books. Upon receipt by the partnering organization or agency, the books will be distributed.

Impact

The impact of this project will be threefold:

1. By decreasing the cost of education through the donation of books and school supplies, more girls and women will be able to afford to attend school.
2. By providing ample books for each student, the quality of education will improve, making educational success more likely for women and girls.
3. By providing additional resources to partnering NGOs, their capacity to provide expanded programming for women and girls will increase.