Education For Her: Breaking Barriers Using Education as aTool.

Education is important for the girl child because it gives her a voice, places her in rooms filled with opportunities, opens financial doors and prepares her for global opportunities. As they say “Education is the key”, it opens up doors of endless growth and development. Girl child education is important to society because it breaks the circle of poverty, improves health outcomes, promotes gender equality, leads to better governance and social progress and leads to environmental sustainability.

Education is a necessity, it is not optional and it is not restricted to a particular gender, as both boys and girls should have equal access to education, no matter their background. However, in different societies, girl child education is still a topic that is not considered, as girls are coerced into learning how to keep the home and how to cook, as the importance of education is overlooked. These girls who belong to these societies that frown at girl child education are “domesticated” by learning how to play wife roles and are married off at an early age.

Recognising the gap in girl child education, where boys have more access to education. On 14th of November, 2024, She Can Advocacy and Empowerment Initiative (SCAEI), conducted an outreach “Education For Her”, to encourage girls to stay in school, read their books and embrace education as a privilege and make the best out of this opportunity. This outreach was conducted in a public school in the Eastern part of Nigeria,
where about 200 girls were sensitized.

During the outreach, the SCAEI team taught these girls about the relevance of education, shared educational pamphlets and told success stories of girls and women whose ways and careers have been paved by education, as they have attained global opportunities where they lend their voices to make decisions about global topics. Through these stories we also established that education is not for the rich alone, as it is the right of everyone.

At the end of the outreach, our success was measured by the fact that these girls became aware of the importance to their families, society and themselves. These girls were able to identify factors that limit girl child education such as teenage pregnancy, culture and poverty. These girls also identified the roles that they can play in ensuring that the girl next door gets to know the importance of education and also has access to education.

Educating girls is imperative for achieving gender equality and female empowerment. Investing in girl child education is advantageous, as it opens doors for girls, families, and society and this promotes global growth. Advocating for girl child education should not just be for women and girls alone, as all individuals, non governmental and governmental organizations should come together to ensure that girl child education is accelerated.

As we work towards promoting equal access to education for girls, we look forward to support through volunteering and sponsorship. This will encourage us to cover more rural areas and also provide aids to girls in form of scholarships, stationery provision and extracurricular activities and mentorship programs. We believe that together, we can help promote girl child education.