International Women's Day 2024

♀️ Who Runs the World? ♀️

Spoiler: it’s still not girls.

Long-term supporters may (or may not!) remember this article we wrote 5 years ago for International Women's Day 2019, celebrating girls’ education.

While so much of what we wrote remains the same, we're also pleased to see big advancements in the Education All Month, Every Month programmes we support in Kenya and Tanzania.

UNESCO now estimates around 37 million primary-aged girls don't go to school, with around 20 million of these in Sub-Saharan Africa. In this region alone, this equates to 23% of primary age girls in comparison to 19% of primary age boys.

(It should be noted that while the methodology for gathering this data evolves, we also suspect our 2019 figures were far too low!)

Many girls in Sub-Saharan Africa still miss one week in four of their schooling when their families can't afford sanitary towels, which leads them to fall so far behind their peers, that they drop out of school completely. Not only does this risk a girl's safety - leaving her more open to abuse, exploitation and disease - it also stifles her skills development which leads to reduced earning potential, health and self-sufficiency into adulthood.

Education All Month, Every Month changes that.

This programme ensures girls receive a supply of reusable sanitary towels and underwear, together with regular social education forums, so they can manage their periods and don't have to miss school while menstruating. This means they don't see dropping out as their only option and they will continue to improve the opportunities available to them in the future.

Let's not forget the Ripple Effect of education means these positives have a knock-on effect to future generations too.

In 2019, our partners in Kenya and Tanzania were expecting to support 450 girls through the Education All Month, Every Month programme. In 2023, they reached over 2,200. Wow! That’s an incredible five-fold increase.

To our funders and supporters, thank you. Such a sizeable impact would not have been possible without your generosity. To our partners, congratulations. Thank you for your continual hard work that is making such an enormous difference to the lives of the girls you work with.

Let’s see what the next 5 years has in store!