Senegal: Education as an
Alternative to Early Marriage
When asked about what challenges
she and her classmates face
in getting an education,
16-year-old Mansata Balde
speaks of poverty and early
marriage. "I have friends
who have already been married
off. Their parents can't
afford to send them to school
and when the opportunity
for marriage comes up, parents
often think that it is the
best option," she says.
As her uncle, Bokar Balde,
explains, "If your child
has a scholarship, you, as
a parent, have no economic
barriers to educating them.
If they don't have a scholarship,
you have to budget for their
school supplies and often
you don't have enough to
support them adequately.
That is when marriage, in
the father's eyes, becomes
a better option."
|
"I want to be the president of Senegal," says Mansata, who is able to continue pursuing her education thanks to AGSP.
|
Mansata has been an Ambassadors'
Girls' Scholarship recipient
for three years and is currently
in ninth grade in the town
of Bagadadji in the Kolda
region of Senegal. Mansata
lives at home with her extended
family, including her parents,
uncles, aunts, siblings,
and cousins. In addition
to helping with household
chores, Mansata helps her
younger siblings review their
homework daily. Even before
she was an AGSP scholar,
Mansata helped her siblings
so that they too could be
successful in school.
The most important part of
the scholarship package,
according to Mansata, is
the textbooks. Books are
expensive in Senegal and
the AGSP provides scholars
with books on math, history,
geography, science, physics,
English, and even dictionaries.
When asked what she wants
to be when she grows up,
Mansata says "I want
to be the president of Senegal." She
goes on to say that, "If
you are a scholar, you are
independent. You can learn
anything you would like to
learn, you can do any school
exercises you would like
to do. You can know things
that your parents never knew." Just
like Mansata, there are currently
420 other girls in the Kolda
region and more than 1,200
additional girls in Senegal
who will continue to study
and have more opportunities
to avoid early marriage in
large part due to the support
they are receiving from the
AGSP.
The Ambassadors' Girls' Scholarship
Program
Through schooling, children are equipped
with knowledge skills that improve
the quality of their lives. Skills
such as reading and working with
numbers, as well as accurate information
on health and science, provide opportunities
to students that would otherwise
not exist. Unfortunately, in many
African communities, access to primary
and secondary schools is restricted
for young girls due to social, cultural,
and financial constraints.
One component of the U.S. President's
African Education Initiative (AEI)
is the Ambassadors Girls Scholarship
Program (AGSP). Funded through the
U.S. Agency for International Development,
AGSP is being implemented throughout
sub-Saharan Africa from 2004 - 2008.
World Education manages the program
in 12 West African countries in collaboration
with local NGOs. The AEI-AGSP supports
80,000 girls across the continent
each year (30,000 in West Africa
alone) who are economically disadvantaged,
handicapped, orphaned and/or affected
or infected by HIV and AIDS each
year in the form of scholarships
and mentoring. Many of the beneficiaries
would otherwise be out of school
or are at risk of dropping out. The
girls are sponsored over a period
of 4-5 years, through mostly primary
and some junior secondary schooling.
In addition, each girl enrolled in
the scholarship program is mentored
and encouraged in her educational
pursuits while participating in activities
that will focus on HIV mitigation
and prevention, and community participation
and democracy.
More
Features Stories...
|
