Stop 368 Teen Girls in Ghana from Missing School

Khadija is a 17-year-old girl from Timeabu, a village located in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. The community has a population of about 600, which includes the small settlements surrounding the village. Khadija’s mother, Zenatu, is a trader and a beneficiary of the Self-Help International micro-credit program, and Khadija’s father, Haruna, is a farmer. Khadija’s parents have six children and come from Bimbila in the northern part of Ghana, about 350 km (220 miles), or a 7-hour drive, from Timeabu.

In 2016, Self-Help International created the Teen Girls Club, which focuses on ensuring that teenage girls stay in school and climb the “academic ladder” to break the cycle of poverty. At the time the Teen Girls Club was introduced, Khadija was in junior high school and she gladly joined the program along with her older sister and students from both Timeabu Primary School and Kwaso Junior High School.

Khadija was very committed and took part in all the club’s activities, including skills training, reproductive health education programs, and classes. She was among the first batch of Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) candidates from Timeabu in May 2018.

The Fight for Timeabu’s Junior High

Timeabu has one dusty and narrow access road. Because of this, portions of the road can become inaccessible during rainy seasons. Timeabu has no electricity, but thankfully there is a borehole that provides clean water. Students spend hours in line waiting for this water both in the morning and the evening. In addition to waiting for water, each family has to share a lantern and the children need the light to study after school in the evening. All of these factors add to the challenges Timeabu students face.

Additionally, Timeabu battled for years for their community to have a junior high school. Prior to 2015, the primary school only went as far as 6th grade, so children had to trek 4 km (2.5 miles) to attend junior high in Kwaso, a nearby community.

The expectations from everyone - community members, elders, teachers, and school directors - were high. Students at Khadija’s primary school needed to excel in order to justify the introduction of a junior high school in Timeabu. Luckily, the students did excellently, and the community got a junior high in Timeabu in 2015.  Khadija attended the junior high school and took her entrance exams for senior high school.

Making History

Thankfully, Khadija passed the exams and was admitted to Ejisuman Senior High school to study Home Economics.

“I am short of words. I don’t know how to thank everybody; I am so grateful,” Khadija told Self-Help.

She wants to become a nurse and serve her community because there is no health post in Timeabu.  She believes studying Home Economics will help her achieve that goal.

Khadija is the first girl from Timeabu to go to any senior high school. She is making history, but there is more work to do.

The Challenge of Senior High and Persevering On

Ejisuman Senior High in the town of Ejisu is 22 kilometers (14 miles) from Timeabu and Khadija is a day student. Consequently, it was virtually impossible for Khadija to live in Timeabu and attend school. Self-Help staff visited the school twice to meet with the headmaster in an attempt to change Khadija’s residential status, but unfortunately this did not work out.

Khadija decided she wanted to persevere on and try to attend the senior high school in Ejisu.  The first trimester was extremely challenging for Khadija, as she had to work on weekends to make money to pay for transportation to school during the week.

Thankfully, as a Teen Girls Club member, she learned how to hew firewood to sell to her club for credit. Khadija did this every weekend. Her club gave her 40 Ghanaian cedi (GHC) for transportation, and Self-Help also donated writing supplies to lessen her burden.

At the beginning of the second trimester, a teacher living in Ejisu that used to teach in Timeabu agreed to let Khadija stay with her.

Khadija is thankful to all who have made her education possible.

“I have come far. At this point, nothing can stop me. Most of my friends now know that going to senior high school is possible for girls from Timeabu,” Khadija said. “We are not under any curse saying we can’t go to senior high schools. We can become responsible adults.”

Inspiring Other Young Women

Khadija’s success has motivated other teenage girls in Timeabu and surrounding communities. Girls who once planned to end their education after junior high school are now aiming higher.

If girls go beyond junior high school, they’ll become more knowledgeable, skillful and employable. This will lead to significant reductions in teenage pregnancies and needless deaths, and it will set them up for success in the future. Mothers now have renewed confidence in investing in their daughters, and the Teen Girls Club is ready to support them.

We’re competing to win $10,000 to support dozens more young women who hope to follow Khadija’s example, and we need your help! The top four projects with the greatest number of donors between February 28 - March 14 will win a $10,000 bonus! Will you help us inspire more girls by making a gift of $10 today?