Empower Women in Africa, Inc.

Vital Stats

Lori S

Ashby, MA

  • people helped900
  • People Doing It 10

The Problem

I was recently a Peace Corps Volunteer in Andara, Namibia. I taught 100 students at a school of over 600. About half of my students were girls and I got to know several of them as if they were my sisters. We overcame our difficulties together and we celebrated our joys. Each year of school in the village I worked cost N$180, or the equivalent of about US$25. At the start of the school year, there was a small group of students who could afford to pay for the first trimester, and even fewer who could pay for the whole year. Some would pay in mangos they had grown at home, or with a chicken they would sacrifice to gain an education. School uniforms were worn by fewer than half of the students, simply because they couldn’t afford them. One obstacle all of my female students faced on top of not being able to afford the school fees was being able to stay in school during their menstruation. More than once, a student called me to her desk during the school day and told me she had to go home because she had started her period. She would be allowed to go, turning her skirt around and holding her books in front of the stain she had been hiding. The first time this happened, I expected to see her the next day. However, I quickly learned that pads and tampons are not in a family’s budget when they barely have enough money to feed everyone more than once a day. Girls are regularly out of school more often than their male peers simply because they are girls. This denies them the education that is their right, setting them up for a life of dependency on a man for survival because they will be unable to compete for a job, without a full education.

Plan of Action

Empower Women in Africa, Inc. will have two areas of focus – to sponsor students in their education and to help women set up small businesses selling a much needed product. Already, a donation of 1368 reusable cloth menstrual pads has been collected (see http://www.gladrags.com/t-andara.aspx). The first set of 600 pads have been given to 200 girls at Andara Combined School where I was teaching, and the rest will be given out at Omuthitu Combined School and Omaruru Clinic where an adolescent health program has been started. With the donations, the girls are given information for cleaning and storing the pads, as well as a health education about female development and reproductive health. But a donation reaches a one-time population and depends on charity instead of empowerment. Empower Women in Africa, Inc. has already established a relationship with an organization in Namibia (By Provision, see http://www.byprovision.org/Home.asp) where girls have been selected, upon graduation, to attend a workshop on starting a small business making and selling reusable cloth menstrual pads. Without this opportunity, the girls would return to their village home because there is no money for further education and there are few job opportunities available without a college degree. In rural Africa where the culture is centered around men, young women are not likely to be able to secure a job. To fund a girl’s education in Namibia costs approximately US$500. This includes payment of school fees (varying by school), purchase of a new school uniform, school supplies (notebooks, calculator, dictionary, pens, etc.), a weekly snack allowance so she can eat during the school day and even a monthly food allowance to a host family if that has been set up so she can school in a town instead of a village where opportunities are even more limited. A sponsor has been found for one girl so far. By hosting public speaking events, we have been able to gain support from schools and sports teams to sponsor more girls as we grow.
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Education
Education Inequalities
Financial Education
Global Poverty
Human Rights
Homelessness and Poverty
Women's Rights

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