Female Education

Qurbani Foundation strongly believes that females need to be properly educated as they are the future mothers and therefore the most important building blocks of our societies. History has proven that illiterate mothers will likely raise illiterate and ineffective societies. Alternatively, literate mothers will largely contribute to literate and effective societies.

In December of 2005, Qurbani Foundation’s team in Pakistan conducted research to determine the situation of females attending school in the district of Shikarpur. The results of the research were alarming. It was identified that approximately 2,500 girls enter into primary school each year, but only 250 (or 10%) of those students continue on to graduate from the 12th grade. It was also discovered that three times more (approximately 7,500) such female students never even see a classroom in their lives, due to a lack of schools for females in their small villages or because their parents can’t even afford to send them to the first grade. This situation has created an environment in which the literacy rate is below 3% for all females.

To identify causes of the high number of dropouts, a brainstorming session was held with female students from the 11th and 12th grades along with teachers at the Government Girls College Shikarpur. One of the major factors to this astounding problem was an even bigger problem – poverty. Parents can’t afford even the essentials for survival, hence they decide to keep girls at home and, if at all even possible, they send only their sons to school.

Qurbani Foundation’s team went further to start defining the project at hand by collecting additional data. It was found that 10 – 30% of girls who attend school can’t afford to continue after some time. Therefore, such students were to be supported by meeting their needs on a monthly basis so they may remain in class. Additional research proved that all the districts away from major cities show the same statistics. For such students that never even see a school, it was decided that their well being must be addressed at a later phase of the project.

In early 2007, Qurbani Foundation’s Pakistan team submitted a formal proposal to the headquarters with plans on how to tackle this major problem. The proposal was approved, and the implementation of work was initiated. These girls come from extremely poor families. Therefore, working with their impoverished parents,
Qurbani Foundation has launched a major initiative to provide financial support for school-going girls allowing them to continue with their education.

Just $10 per month is enough to offer one student the opportunity to continue her education and bring a remarkable change to her life . . . and in time, many such cases can bring change to the society.

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