Last July Naataosim (NAT-O-SIM) Mako ran away from home. Her father had told her she must drop out of school and get married. "I didn't want to marry," says Naataosim. "I wanted to stay in school."
Naataosim is only 10 years old! She belongs to the Masai tribe, a proud nomadic people in Kenya, Africa. They roam the countryside herding cattle, goats and sheep. The Masai value bravery, intelligence and fairness but place little importance on education--especially for girls.
Luckily, Naataosim knew where to go for help. "I ran as fast as I could until I was inside here," she says. Naataosim found safety at the Kajiado African Inland Church Boarding Primary School. Its principal Priscilla Nangurai (Nan-gur-aye), the principal, has spent much of her life making sure Masai girls are allowed to get an education.
Nangurai protected Naataosim when her father and the bridegroom chased her to the school. "I told them that the girl was in my hands," says Nangurai. Naataosim's father shouted that if Naataosim chose school over marriage, she was never to return home.
Dropping Out To Work Or Marry
Every day around the world, girls like Naataosim are denied the right to learn. About 110 million of the world's children do not go to school, and 73 million of them are girls.
Many girls drop out of school to get married. Others are forced to stay home to help with housework. More than half the world's 200 million child laborers are girls. Poor families make money by sending their daughters to work as maids; 90% of the kids working as servants are girls. Some maids are as young as 4 years old!
Rekha, 10, lives in New Delhi, India. She loves books and school. But her father believes she is wasting her time. "Education will be of no use to her," he says. "It will only make it difficult for us to find a husband for her."
Rekha's parents want her to stay home and take care of her younger brother and sister. Rekha misses school almost every day. "What can I do?" she asks sadly. "I must help my mother take care of the children." Rekha is falling behind. Soon she will have to drop out.
More than 80% of the girls in India start school, but many drop out. Only 30% sign up for high school. In more than 40 poor countries, fewer than a quarter of the girls attend high school.
In China, almost 70% of students who drop out of school are girls. Chinese society does not encourage girls to study. "The idea of regarding men as superior to women has existed in China for several thousand years," says Wang Yusen (You-sun) of the China Children's Fund.
Wang's group helps run the Spring Bud Project. The project helps girls stay in school by giving them scholarships, by helping their families earn more money and, most important, by changing attitudes.
Spring Bud helped Shi Caiyun (Sher Tsai-youn) stay in school and increase her family's income at the same time. Caiyun's village in the southwestern province of Guangxi (Gwan-she) is very poor. Most villagers earn only $60 a year. With Spring Bud's help, Caiyun learned how to read and write and how to make money by growing kiwi fruit. Thanks to Caiyun, her family makes $180 a year. Now even her father agrees that school is a good thing for girls!
Girl Power Starts At Home
Having an education affects the health, wealth and equality of women and their children. The kids of educated women live longer, healthier lives. In Indonesia, the children of uneducated women are three times as likely to die at a young age as those born to women who have gone to high school.
Mary Joy Pignozzi, who is responsible for developing the girls' education program for UNICEF (the United Nations Children's Fund), calls education a basic human right. "Education is the mechanism for building a better life," she says. "But there are no simple solutions to the problem."
The Spring Bud Project in China and Priscilla Nangurai's school in Kenya are just two of many programs around the world whose goal is to keep girls in school. With their help, parents and kids are learning many lessons. Trying to change traditional views about girls and education may be the hardest lesson of all.
No Girls Allowed In Class
For 20 years, a civil war raged in Afghanistan. Two years ago, a
group called the Taliban took control of most of the country. It imposed strict rules forbidding music and television and restricting the rights of women. An Afghan journalist told TFK his daughter's story:
Even when bombs were falling on Kabul (Afghanistan's capital), my 10-year-old daughter Rahula would scurry down the dusty lanes to her one-room school. Learning mattered to her. Then, one day, the guns fell silent. The conquerors came rolling into the city in tanks. At first Rahula was happy with the new Taliban government. It brought peace and punished thieves. Then the Taliban started making harsh rules for everyone. They told all the women and girls to stay home.
Last June, Rahula's mom gave her some bad news. There was a new rule: only boys could go to school. Rahula thought the law was unfair. How could she become a doctor? Her mother had gone to college. Why couldn't she? Our family got together with neighbors. Secretly, we hired a teacher for our daughters. We are breaking the law. Rahula hopes that one day girls will have the same opportunities as boys.