Investing in the future
Girls education: bringing benefits to some of Egypt's most deprived communities
Awatif Morsy will never forget the day she heard that a new school was to open in her village.
"Someone came to the house asking for the names of the children who weren't attending class," she recalls. "My mother gave them my name. I was so thrilled."
Like most eight year-olds in the village of Beni Shara'an, Awatif's life until that fateful day was divided between back-breaking work in the nearby wheat fields or confinement at home. To girls like her, the new school --a single classroom on the ground floor of a converted house -- was a dream come true.
"We would go and watch the facilitators decorating the room. Everything was bright and colourful. There were games and pictures, things I'd never seen before."
Not everyone in the village was so enthusiastic, at least initially. Some farmers complained that the school would deprive them of the cheap labour the children provided. Even Awatif's own step-father was unconvinced.
"What does a girl need to study for?" he would ask.
Happily, that was not the view of Farouk Abdel Naim, the elderly merchant who was persuaded to donate the premises for the school to use. "I've come to believe that a girl's education is more important even than a boy's," Mr Abdel Naim says. "A man can always make something out of his circumstances, but a girl can't. She needs to be educated in order to get on in life."
Ten years on, it's hard to find anyone in Beni Shara'an who doesn't share that opinion. The school -- which has now expanded into three classes -- is today seen as a wise investment from which the community is reaping tangible rewards.
Take the example of shopkeeper Ahmed Abdel Jaber. Himself illiterate, he sent his daughter, Rawia, to join the school as soon as it opened.
"Until Rawia went to school, my store accounts were in a complete mess," he recalls. "But before long, she was taking care of all the books for me, as well as helping her elder sister to read and write."
Rawia is disabled, but her father says she's the most capable of his four daughters. "I can say that to me, Rawia's no longer just a girl; she's more precious than ten sons."
While the drive to get more Egyptian girls into school is bringing benefits in places like Beni Shara'an, the impetus has been felt nationally. From the 227 community schools set up by UNICEF and its partners since 1990 has emerged a campaign -- led by the First Lady, Mrs Suzanne Mubarak -- setting girl's education as one of Egypt's top development priorities.
The Community School initiative has been mainstreamed into the formal educational system, and has also gone to larger scale. In 2000, Egypt launched its own girls' education initiative under the leadership of the National Council for Childhood and Motherhood (NCCM) in partnership with seven UN agencies. This large national programme forms part of the United Nations Girls' Education Initiative, and promotes the establishment of girl-friendly schools modeled after the Community schools.
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online : Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/780/sc61.htm