Why focus on girls?

The remainder of the IBM Corporate Service Corps (CSC) team arrived around February 18 and left March 19.  Their time here seemed to fly and somehow my best intentions to write weekly fell by the wayside.  Now, I remain as the only CSC team member still in Ghana.

Our team worked on girls' education and empowerment with a social enterprise called TECHAiDE as well as the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection and the Ghana Education Service's Girls' Education Unit.  During our projects with these partners, a question I heard many times from various demographic groups was, "Why focus on girls?"

My response is always the same.  Girls' empowerment and education are not "female" issues.  They are societal issues of interest to men and women for the following two reasons. 

1.  Research tells us that the poverty or prosperity of a family, community and country follows the poverty or prosperity of its women.  If men desire a prosperous family, community or country, it is in their best interest to raise the status of women around them. 

2.  Research also tells us that males and females often approach problem solving differently but when both approaches are employed, stronger solutions arise.  So if men desire better solutions to their family's, community's or country's challenges, it is in their best interest to help women develop and contribute their voices, especially associated with problem solving.

Many statistics support these two claims but here are a few from a USAID study, "Learning out of Poverty."  https://www.usaid.gov/infographics/50th/learning-out-of-poverty and from the Organization for Economic Co-operative Development (OECD) global school ranking http://www.bbc.com/news/business-32608772.

Economic Benefits

•38X: Ghana’s estimated GDP increase if all 15 year olds achieved basic math and science proficiency

•10%: potential future earning increase per extra year of a girl’s education

•10-30%: higher productivity per extra year of a girl’s education

•90%: percentage of income educated woman invests in her family (vs 40% for educated man)

Social Benefits

•2X: chance a child born to an educated mother has of surviving to age 5

•50%: higher likelihood an educated mother immunizes her children

•3X: reduced chances a girl completing basic education has for contracting HIV/AIDS

Empowering girls does not dis-empower boys.  It helps empower them too, to participate in stronger community building and problem solving.

I write this blog with the primary intention of helping introduce people of different cultural backgrounds to Ghana.  So, I'll take a moment to overview the typical girls' learning environment, some of the work already done in Ghana and highlight what further work might be needed.  A few statistics might be helpful here too.  

• Teen pregnancy is a problem as is early marriage with 27% of Ghanaian girls marrying before age 18 - though national policy has been enacted to prevent taking child brides.
• 17% of Ghanaian girls aged 15-19 experience sexual violence though laws exist to deter this.
• 32% of Ghanaian girls over age 15 experience physical violence though laws exist to deter this
• 95% of Ghanaian girls in upper Primary and Junior High School levels miss about one week of school per month due to lack of resources and facilities to manage their menstrual cycle needs at school.  Great strides have been made providing toilet facilities at Senior High Schools but now the same facilities are needed at all schools since many girls begin menstruating in Primary school.  

Various articles cite other challenges facing girls in receiving an education but I will base the following comments on primary research conducted by our team through surveys of about 40 rural communities and interviews with hundreds of people: teachers, administrators, students, parents.

• Many Ghanaian girls are taught within their cultural community to be demure - that educated or outspoken women are seen as less attractive wives.
• Many Ghanaian girls lack female role models who are educated.  Thus, they often aspire to what they are exposed to as female roles.  Building a national female role model mentoring network: its strategy and internet based solution, were our two projects sponsored by the Ministry and Girls' Education Unit of the GES.
• Many Ghanaian girls who do attend schools are subject to harassment from their male counterparts.  For example, at one Junior High School I visited, I interviewed a large group of boys.  When asked if a student who excels academically is teased, they emphatically responded, "No! We respect such a student and want them to succeed!"  When I asked what happens if that bright student is a girl, their faces visibly changed and they said they tease such a girl a lot...that they secretly admire her but they are trying to bring her down because she "thinks she's better than us."  Interesting contrast in opinions: a boy who excels in school is to be encouraged while a girl who excels needs to be torn down.
• Many Ghanaian girls who attend school are sent from school to do chores either for the school or at the teacher's house with the latter being officially prohibited by law.  By chores I mean things like fetching water since most schools do not have a water source on premises, sweeping the grounds, doing laundry for the teacher, cocoa farming, etc...  One group of girls I interviewed at first said they are not sent from class to do chores.  But as the conversation continued, I learned that they leave during the first morning break to go to teachers' houses to do house and farming chores there.  When asked how long the break is, the answer was "30 minutes."  When asked how long it takes them to fetch water, do laundry, etc... for their teacher, the answer was 2 - 2.5 hours.
• Poverty presents itself as a major hurdle that impacts many students but often girls more than boys.  Though Basic education (Kindergarten to Junior High School level 3) in Ghana is free, families still incur costs that are significant when one realizes that the poverty standard in Ghana is the equivalent of about $1.83 USD / day and almost one quarter of the population lives below that modest amount (55% in the rural savannah areas).  Even if above the poverty standard, families need to manage local school levies (taxes), school supplies, uniforms, books, food and the offset of the student being in school instead of helping with the family farm or business.  This impacts girls more than boys because if a family can afford expenses for only one child, the preference is typically given to sending the boy child to school.  Furthermore, boys are allowed more supplemental income earning opportunities than girls.
• To address the poverty situation, girls (or sometimes their families) resort to securing "boyfriends" or "sugar daddies" who will provide them and many times their families with food and funds to meet school expenses in exchange for sex.  I spoke to several girls who were in such a situation...girls ranging in age from 14 to 18 who were sleeping with men many years older than them just so they could afford to go to school.  By the way, the boyfriend/sugar daddy distinction, I'm told, is based upon if the man is old enough to be the girl's father or not.  If you are curious how prevalent this practice is, simply Google "Ghana Sugar Daddy" and see how openly this economy operates.
• The boyfriend/sugar daddy syndrome feeds the teen pregnancy situation for a few reasons.  Girls often do not understand how their body works and find themselves pregnant unexpectedly.  When many girls begin menstruating, they receive instructions on what to do to handle their period but not the biological workings that cause it to happen.  Also, many girls and boys could recite for me how to prevent pregnancy but when I asked what those words meant, they often did not know.  It was a rote memorized response that did not connect to the practicalities of their lives.  One teenaged mother's comments captured the situation, "I did not know that I was pregnant.  I thought I was just getting fat.  My mother told me I was not getting fat but that I was pregnant...My family did this for money but now I have a baby and need money more than ever."

To help with all these challenges, the Girls' Education Unit employs Girls' Education Officers in each school district.  But many girls and their families adhere to a cultural taboo against talking about such challenges.  And, though the sugar daddy/boyfriend situation is generally despised, many people feel they have no other options.  As one woman I interviewed said, "You do not know what it's like to be so hungry that you will resort to this."

Amidst all these challenges, there are shining examples of women succeeding and our team had the opportunity to interview some of them towards establishing the national mentoring network.  This network is vitally important because people usually dream about things they know but a good mentor helps you achieve things you never knew existed or were possible.  By exposing girls to other effective options, these mentors can provide one strong link in the chain pulling girls away from feeling their only option involves exchanging sex for funds to pay educational expenses.

Our team's other two projects were with TECHAiDE, a social enterprise focused on using educational technology to empower citizens, especially in rural areas.  This is vitally important too because most rural schools and communities in Ghana lack internet access and consequently have fewer information resources readily available.  TECHAiDE, collaborating with the CSC, Peace Corps, Ministry of Gender and the Girls' Education Unit has architected, designed and prototyped a device that can deliver a subset of internet content focused on education as well as localized educational content directly supporting Ghana's school syllabus and girls' empowerment content.  It can provide access to education for girls who periodically miss school, keep girls engaged in studying when unable to attend for extended periods of time such as waiting a term or two to return to school until enough funds are available, and teach boys, girls, men and women valuable skills in empowering themselves and others.

It's truly an honor that IBM CSC was invited to be a part of public and private efforts to continue addressing girls' education and empowerment as Ghana continues its 25+ year history helping the country improve by helping women succeed.