Girls in Tanzania, especially those living in Coast Region such as Kwala, face far greater barriers to education than boys. Some of the challenges girls face include:  forced early marriage, withdrawal from school to help with household chores, and forced prostitution.

Understanding the Issue:

Women’s education has been well documented as a vital means of improving the social and economic well-being of a nation. Unfortunately, girls in Tanzania face more challenges and barriers to education than boys. Many families are reluctant to allow their daughters to attend secondary school because of the financial burden – secondary school costs $300 per year in a country where the annual earnings for many are $360.  As a result, many girls are pushed into early marriage – as young as 11 or 12 years old.  Other girls that start secondary school, particularly those away from their parents, have no means of support and end up providing for their own school fees and living expenses through prostitution. As could be expected in this environment, unwanted pregnancy is a major cause of girls halting their education – and their future.

Women are the future of Tanzania – girls who complete their secondary education become educated and empowered women whose own daughters are free of past vicious cycles of poor education, pregnancy and poverty.

Community Solution:

Starting with the 2009 Tanzanian school year, NTC began giving scholarships to twenty girls at Kwala Secondary School defined as “at severe risk of dropping out of school” by the female teachers at the school. The scholarships including school fees, food, uniforms, school supplies, and housing in a safe “girls only” dormitory close to the school. Individual donors in the United States were matched with a girl at Kwala, receiving updates and letters from the girls they were sponsoring. NTC was also promised by the Kwala Secondary School staff that they would work with the parents of the girls to ensure that they are saving money from their scholarship year to support the girl for her remaining years at Kwala Secondary School.

NTC plans to continue supporting girls education in Kwala in several ways.

• NTC will continue to support “at risk” girls for individual school years. While eight of the twenty girls in the original project are set to finish Form 4 this year, twelve girls will remain at Kwala Secondary School next year. Most of the girls chosen for scholarships are orphans living with relatives or friends, and will not given money to continue their education next year. NTC hopes to continue supporting those girls, and reach out to other at-risk girls as well.

Fundraising Goal: $300.00 per girl

• A long term solution to some of the dangers girls face in Kwala is to build a girls dormitory at Kwala Secondary School that can house all of Kwala’s girls and be supervised by an female teacher from the school.

Fundraising Goal: $50,000.00

• Starting in September, 2009, NTC Project Director Lisa Walker will start a weekly after school girls group at Kwala Secondary School, facilitating conversation for girls only and allowing girls at Kwala to openly express themselves or take on women’s empowerment and leadership projects.