All over Haiti, parents residing in rural areas have traditionally invested in their son’s education their daughters remain in the village to do house chores. The lack of access to basic and vocational education has played significant role in maintaining girls and women at the bottom of the social and economic echelon. We have established an Education Funds to provide scholarship for girls to attend primary, secondary and vocational education so they can pay it forward to women and girls within their own communities and beyond.Investing in girls’ education is the only way to bridge the gender gap.. On the other hand, since today’s girls are future mothers and parents, the more educated and gender aware they, the more likely they are to contribute to their communities, play a major role in politics and decision making, and can ensure a brighter future for all children, the girls in particular.. As the African saying goes:

 

If you educate a boy, you have educated one person; if you eduate a girl, you have educated the entire village

Why Rural Girls’ Education Funds?

Rural girls then become women has been among the poorest and the most vulnerable people in Haiti. For generations, parents in rural Haiti have traditionally sent their male children to school while the girls would stay home to learn to do house chores, fetch water,  go grocery shopping, sell crops at the local market, and take care of younger children. In the past three decades, with primary schools available in most rural Haiti, parents began sending their female children to school. However, due to the amount of house chores they must do on daily basis, most girls drop out before reaching the fourth grade. As for the few who are lucky enough to complete their primary education, less than 5 percent will attend secondary schools located in towns and city, away from their villages. Since most parents can’t afford to rent place in towns and sustain their children while living there during the school year, the girls end up staying home.

 

Overall, the girls who do not have access to education and job skills are more are more vulnerable to teen pregnancy, domestic violence, sexual, psychological and physical abuse. In many instances, girls who are unable to attend school go to domestic labor and become vulnerable to physical, sexual and psychological abuse, women health issues, and extreme poverty. Meanwhile, the girls who finish primary and secondary school who are more likely to escape these conditions and marry later in their adult years.

 

As many practitioners in the field has suggested, the best way to bridge the education gap between rural girls and boys and their urban sisters  is to set up mechanisms to reduce and eliminate poverty, which endemic in rural Haiti.  While AFPA is working tirelessly to move entire rural communities out poverty, we believe setting a scholarship fund for rural girls can be instrumental in  bridging such a wide gap in education, which is key to a brighter future.

Although Haiti’s education system doesn’t include sexual education in their curriculum, all girls living in communities where we work, especially those benefiting from our scholarship must be educated on and aware of their women’s right and their sexual orientation. Conversely, elite women and girls in Haiti are educated and well aware of their women’s rights. However, rural women in areas where we work didn’t even know they had such rights. They thought only men had such a prerogative. Since the dominant rural culture is rooted in matriarchy, thanks to our persuasion, many men in rural Haiti have come to the realization that being gay is a fundamental right for both men and women. We’re still have a long way to go; nonetheless, they’ve been so progress.

 

Believing in the power of education for women and the contribution they can give to entire communities, 30 % of the endowment for girls’ education is allocated to women who did not have an opportunity to pursue their education. The beneficiaries can decide to complete their primary, secondary education, or they can opt to enter a vocational school. In rural Haiti, since most women over the age of 35 years old are completely illiterate, we have partnered to the National Literacy Bureau to teach these women how to read and write, especially math skills so they can better manage their small and medium enterprise. We noticed that women who became literate as a result of our program have increasingly played major leadership roles in their communities.