Random Tanzanian experiences of the day. On
the way out to a meeting we passed a petrol station with the usual beautifully
manicured grounds and….. 2 Brontosauruses displayed on the forecourt. The mind
boggles. I have also seen the best
mobility scooter ever – a wheelchair with the front of a bike attached to it.
Even better, the guy was motoring down the road, full pelt in the middle of
Tanzanian traffic; an incredible act of bravery.
Not sure if you’ve ever heard of ‘the girl
effect’? It is something to do with men but not in the way you might imagine.
The girl effect is something to do with all of us. Put simply, it could change
the world. Today, more than 600 million girls live in the developing world and
the total global population of girls, already at its highest point ever is set
to peak in the next decade. Approximately only a ¼ of these girls are not in
school. Are we feeling depressed yet?
Let’s flip the coin and think about those ¾
who are in school, and the impact that they have on their families, their
communities and their countries. When a girl in the developing world receives
seven or more years of education (that’s getting into secondary school folks)
she marries 4 years later and has, on average 2.2 children less. An extra year
of primary school boosts girls’ eventual wages by 10 -20%. An extra year of
secondary school, 15-25%. Tellingly, there is a well known Swahili saying
“Educate one women and you educate an entire family”.*
As you will have gathered if you have been
reading this blog whilst I’ve been out here – many of the programmes our
partners deliver are based around education; whether this is girls’ education,
HIV/AIDS education, CASEC’s Youth Centre or Land Rights. What we haven’t really
mentioned is community education. PWC have just begun work on a Song and Dance
project. Its aim is clear; we want to get girls into primary school to
implement our secondary school projects. Although primary education is
universal in Tanzania, the number of girls enrolled in Maasai districts is low
and the drop out ratio, high – often due to forced early marriages.
What this project does is to take
traditionally and commonly used Maasai ways of communication (song, dance and
drama) and use them instead of the western “meetings” to educate parents and
local government as to the importance of sending girls to school. This is the
first time this methodology has been used in Tanzania. A Kenyan group has trained
community trainers who work with children in 15 schools to develop songs,
dances and dramas which they then perform. It’s an exciting project – and,
although only going for 7 months is already seeing results.
The beauty of it is that it’s not PWC
educating parents and local policy makers – it’s the kids themselves. And you
can’t get much more powerful than that.
*I don’t have all these facts in my head by
the way, if you would like the sources please email me val@african-initiatives.org.uk,
tweet @AIGlobal or facebook African Initiatives.
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