Around 184,000 children aged 3-17 in conflict-affected areas in NW Myanmar are most at risk of missing out on education. To address this issue, the project provides quality education for those affected by conflict, especially orphaned girl children who cannot otherwise access or afford it, to include the disabled, displaced, and those from poor minority ethnic groups. Once completed, these girl change agents will become the next leaders and lay the foundation for a brighter future for Myanmar.
Girl children face specific challenges, especially in Shan State with the lowest female literacy rate in the country among young women at 59.4%. These educational challenges include: ( a) domestic laws regarding women's rights (b) economic pressure forcing girl children to work, dangerous labour, sexual violence and being forced into early and unsafe marriages (c), and most refugee and IDP camps only offer education up to the primary level where women and children occupy 70% of the population.
Our project provides a safe and peaceful environments for orphaned girl children to study beyond primary school.By providing (a) safe environments from primary to high school young girl children are less vulnerable to landmines, trafficking and being conscripted into the military (b) we also provide vocational skills and leadership training workshops, (c) psychosocial counselling for our students impacted by conflict (d) and scholarships for young female students to pursue higher education.
Girls' education is one of the most powerful tools for creating economic growth, and disrupting cycles of conflict. Our project focuses on achieving gender parity in education, specifically conflict-affected areas of Myanmar where girl children can harness their unique power and develop their full potential. We believe by providing a quality education it will open up economic opportunities to women. We are proud of our two most recent scholarship awardees who are attending medical school.
