Each Chapter of Girls Learn International,TM Inc. (“GLI”) is paired with a "Partner Classroom" currently engaged in an effort to afford quality education to girls in a community that has historically denied girls equal access to education. GLI Chapters are currently matched with Partner Classrooms in communities in Sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Latin America.

Careful consideration is given to selecting Partner Classrooms. Partner Classrooms may consist of both formal and informal educational programs offering basic and/or secondary education. Partner Classrooms may be co-educational or girls-only schools, provided that they are affirmatively engaged in the efforts to provide equal education opportunities to girls. To be eligible as a Partner Classroom, the program must:

1. Offer a curriculum that is free of gender stereotypes, including use of “gender-sensitive” textbooks and teacher training to avoid discriminatory teaching methods
2. Be in close proximity to prospective girl students to alleviate concerns about safety in travel to and from school
3. Be affordable—either offering free or substantially subsidized education
4. Take into account relevant cultural, social and religious concerns to the extent possible without jeopardizing the goal of providing quality education to girls
5. Encourage completion and continuation on to next level of education
6. Be flexible, taking into account socio-economic circumstances of students (e.g. hours of attendance may be adjusted to accommodate work and/or family obligations of students)
   

Profiles of Select Partner Classrooms

Africa

Ghana
In Ghana, poverty and limited resources encourage families to keep children at home to work instead of attending school. Often, girls are kept at home instead boys to do family chores and work, as their education is less valued.

Kumasi Girls School, Ghana
Partner: Philips Exeter Academy

Anani Memorial School, Nima, Ghana
Self-Sustaining School
In 1975 the founder, Mr. Yao Anane Yagerhad, started Anani Memorial School with a vision of a place where even the most impoverished children of Accra could receive an education. Since then, it has gone on to educate over 4,000 children. The students range in age from 2-14 years, and frequent parent conferences are scheduled to encourage children, particularly girls, to attend school.

Kenya
In Kenya, there is a marked discrepancy in girls' completion of education in the community due to the frequency of early marriage for girls (typically between ages 11 – 14) and familial and societal preferential treatment of boys. Much of the rural population is poor and illiterate.

Alliance Girls High School, Kikuyu, Kenya
Partner: Maasai Girls Education Fund
Founded in 1948, the Alliance Girls High School enrolls 761 girls ages 14 – 18 and has 42 teachers, of which 25 are women. The Alliance Girls School is made up of girls whose parents have inadequate funds to pay tuition fees. Many of girls are either orphans or daughters of peasant farmers or single parents.

Isinya Primary School, Kajiado, Kenya
Partner: Maasai Girls Education Fund
Founded in 1959, Isinya Primary School is a large coeducational school with over 550 students. The school encourages the female students to form support groups to help them stay in school. At Isinya Primary School, Grades 1 – 8 meet in cinder block classrooms holding between 50 and 60 students. The school charges no tuition and follows the English system providing classes in math, science, reading, geography, and history. Extra-curricular activities include sports, athletics, drama, debate and music.

Kajiado Hill Academy, Kajiado, Kenya
Partner: Maasai Girls Education Fund
Founded in 1983, the Kajiado Hill Academy sponsors bright and needy children and enrolls them in both primary and secondary school. The school has both day and boarding students ranging in age from 4 – 18. There are 238 female and 182 male students. Extracurricular activities include athletics (track and field, football, hardball, table tennis, basketball, etc), clubs (drama, music, debate, wildlife, etc) and movements (scouting, religious, etc).

Moi Girls Secondary School-Isinya, Kajiado, Kenya
Partner: Maasai Girls Education Fund
Founded in1980, the Moi Girls Secondary School-Isinya serves a community where cultural factors like early marriage, poverty, and female genital mutilation hamper the education of girls. The school enrolls 600 girls ages 14 – 20 and encourages girls to leave home if forced by parents to submit to mutilation or marry early and report such action by their parents to the local authorities. Extra-curricular activities include games, clubs, societies, and sports.

Noon Kipir Girls’ School, Kajiado, Kenya
Partner: Maasai Girls Education Fund
The Noon Kipir Girls’ School was founded in 1987 and enrolls 326 young women, ages 14 – 20, in grades 9 – 12. The girls are encouraged to be good role models in the community, do well in school and work harder than their brothers so that their parents will allow them to remain in school. The school curriculum includes math, English, Kiswahili, geography, history, religion, chemistry, physics, biology, agriculture, home science and business studies.

Pathfinder Academy, Kitale, Kenya
Self-Sustaining School
Pathfinder Academy was founded in 2002 as a private school in the Rift Valley Province in Kenya to challenge and change myriad assaults to childhood such as poverty, lack of education, malnourishment, physical, emotional and social underdevelopment, all of which endanger children’s welfare and undermine their future. The school’s mission is the provision and advancement of quality education and extracurricular activities, both formal and informal, to children who have been orphaned due to HIV/AIDS and other calamities as a means to counteract pervasive hunger, poverty, and systemic deprivation. In addition, it is committed to enrolling more girls, as it believes that “when you educate a girl you educate a nation, a boy, and a village”. There are 168 girls and 123 boys ranging in ages from 3 – 19 years old.

Top Ride Academy, Kajiado, Kenya
Partner: Beads for Education
Top Ride Academy is a coeducational program that enrolls 90 boys and 98 girls in grades preK –8 and serves the pastoral communities of the Maasai and Samburu people. Top Ride's mission is to (i) empower the girl child through quality education to face the challenges of today's life; (ii) promote leadership skills for future role models and instill a sense of pride and commitment to the girl child; and (iii) promote education levels in the community by organizing environmental, health, education and conservation programs.

Tanzania
In Tanzania, most children attend primary school but while boys continue with their education, many girls are kept home after completion of the lower grades. Because of early marriages for girls and the fact that once married, girls live with the families of their husbands, parents tend not to invest in the education of their daughters.

Emusoi Center, Arusha, Tanzania
Partner: Maryknoll Sisters
Founded in 1999 by a Maryknoll Sister and a Maasai woman, the Emusoi Center runs a remedial program to prepare Maasai girls for secondary school and supports them financially and follows them as they progress through school. Emusoi Center addresses the lack of opportunities for education for girls from pastoralist (Maasai and Barbeig) and hunter/gatherers (Ndorobo and Hadzabe) communities in Tanzania. The girls from these communities are among the most disadvantaged groups in Tanzania with regard to access to secondary education. The Emusoi Center supports over 380 pastoralist girls in pre-secondary, secondary, vocational, advanced and university studies. The Center also serves as a safe house for girls who leave home (either on their own or with the help of relatives, village leaders, NGO’s or church leaders) to avoid forced marriages.

Uganda
The reasons for the gender gap in education in Uganda include poverty, traditional preference for males to receive education, the perception and traditional belief that women do not need education because their primary role is in the home, a shortage of schools, and the necessity for girls to stay home to care for the family.

Kangole Girls’ Secondary School, Moroto, Uganda
Partner: Society of the Sacred Heart
The Kangole Girls’ school is situated in the northern part of Uganda. In this part of the country, education as a whole, and girls’ education in particular, is not valued due to traditional customs and beliefs. Only 10% of girls complete primary school in this area, and only 6% of girls who complete primary school go on to secondary school. The Kangole Girls’ school, founded in 1976, is a secondary school with 580 students ages 12 – 20. Approximately a third of the student body is orphaned. The goal of the school is to increase the number of girl children in the region who complete secondary school and go on to institutes of higher learning. According to school officials, educating girls will uplift the lives of many - “Educate a woman, educate the whole nation.”

Sacred Heart Primary School, Masaka, Uganda
Partner: Society of the Sacred Heart
The Sacred Heart Primary School was founded in 2003 for girls ages 6 – 13. The school is a boarding school in a very poor rural area of south central Uganda. Over a quarter of the students are orphans. In addition to tuition, the students need support for school materials and personal items such as bedding. The Sacred Heart Primary School is committed to increasing the number of girl children in the area who complete primary school and go on successfully to complete secondary school, to expand the community’s awareness of the importance of female education, to provide a better educated female population, to reduce the number of girls marrying too young, becoming pregnant and contracting AIDS, and to provide girls with a practical life skills training to improve family health and develop the tools necessary for self-support and self- reliance.

St. Charles Lwanga Girls’ Training Centre, Kalungu, Uganda
Partner: Society of the Sacred Heart
The Lwanga Girls’ Training Centre is an all girls’ boarding high school, situated in a rural, extremely poor area of Southern Uganda. Many of the students are orphans, having lost their parents to AIDS and civil war. The goal of the Lwanga Girls’ Training Centre is to help young women develop academic excellence, profound integrity, healthy self-esteem, and creative self-reliance in a cooperative spirit.

Asia

Afghanistan
Afghanistan’s indicators are among the worst in the world, especially among girls. Until recently, 97% of primary school aged girls did not attend school and over 92% were unable to read or write.

Abdulla Bin Omar School, Paghman, Afghanistan
Partner: Help the Afghan Children
Abdulla Bin Omar was established as a Model School in March of 2005; one of the first of its kind in the entire country by Help the Afghan Children. It offers a challenging, diverse educational curriculum; has qualified and trained teachers who successfully meet a number of critical teaching competencies; and provides innovative programs geared for a new generation of Afghans that are designed to address emerging, yet unmet educational needs. There are 781 girls and 716 boys (ages 6-16) who attend the school, and encourage girls to enroll in school. In addition to the standard Afghan curriculum of history, math, science, and religion, the Abdulla Bin Omar School also has HTAC sponsored programs in peace education, environmental education, and bi-lingual reading.

The Badakshi School for Girls, Kapisa Province, Afghanistan
Partner: Help the Afghan Children
The Badakhshi School for Girls opened its doors in April 2003. The school is located in the province of Kapisa, the frontline of fighting between the Taliban and Northern Alliance. The Badakhshi School for Girls is one of the few schools that have been rebuilt in the region and one of the only schools catering to girls’ education. There are 486 girls and 132 boys (ages 6 – 18) who attend the school. This school has 20 classrooms, 4 administrative rooms, a computer lab and library, a source of potable water, a playground, and latrines for the students and teachers.

The English Language School, Kabul, Afghanistan
Partner: Women for Afghan Women
The English Language School is a literacy program for girls run by the Humanitarian Aid for Women and Children of Afghanistan (HAWCA), a pioneer in the effort to educate women and children in war-torn Afghanistan. 120 girls are currently enrolled in the program.

Fatimah Zahra Girls’ Primary School, Jalalabad, Afghanistan
Partner: Oruj Learning Center
The Fatimah Zahra Girls’ Primary School was founded in September 2002. The school charges no tuition and was opened to educate Afghanis who returned from Pakistan and Iran. The school is housed in a three-room government building; additional classes are held in tents. The 197 students range in age from 7 – 18 and most students are returnees from Pakistan. The government curriculum includes five subjects: language, math, Holy Quran, hand-writing, and drawing. Fatimah Zahra Girls’ Primary School has also added the subject of Peace.

The Godah Girls’ Primary School, Kabul, Afghanistan
Partner: Oruj Learning Center
The Godah Girls’ Primary School was opened in 2002 and was initially run entirely by volunteers. The school was originally based in the home of its director, Sadiqa Basiri, who also served as a teacher. The 120 students range in age from 7 – 16, and are taught in 4 classrooms by a total of 4 teachers. In addition to the complete curriculum instituted by the transitional government of Afghanistan, the girls are taught the subject of Peace. According to the Godah School’s director, providing education to the country’s children – especially girls, who have been denied access to education for many years – must be a national priority. “For generations, our people have been illiterate. Boys had weapons instead of pens. Girls had nothing to do except chores around the house. We are concerned about our future generation and the future of Afghanistan.”

Cambodia
Poor, rural and often illiterate Cambodian parents tend to keep their daughters from attending school, preferring them to remain home to tend the fields, cook, keep house and mind younger children or otherwise generate income for the family. Girls are taught to be shy and refrain from participating in the activities of the community. To encourage these resistant parents to keep their daughters in school in a culture that does not value educating girls, our partner organization, American Assistance for Cambodia has introduced a program under which parents are paid $10 per month for each month their daughter maintains a perfect attendance record at school. This payment allows families to hire someone to do the work otherwise performed by their daughters and discourages parents from selling their daughters into the sex trade.

Ezra Vogel School, Labanserk Commune, Cambodia
Partner: American Assistance for Cambodia
Founded in 2003, the Ezra Vogel School provides special training to girls with a curriculum that helps them understand their role at school, in the family, and in the community. The school enrolls 32 girls and 47 boys, ages 9 – 17. Housed in a five room schoolhouse, the curriculum includes Cambodian language, the national education curriculum (including mathematics, history, geography, science, English) and computer skills. Extra-curricular activities include reading time in the school library and sports and children’s computer related games developed by the MIT Media Laboratory. The school is managed and funded by the local Ministry of Education. American Assistance for Cambodia funds English and computer skills training, e-mail access, some library books, computers, and a printer. The annual cost of educating a girl runs from $15-$25 per student per annum.

The Gloria Jarecki School, Ratanakiri Province, Cambodia
Partner: American Assistance for Cambodia
The Gloria Jarecki School has a special focus on girls/women’s empowerment. To encourage the education of girls, there is funding support for the girls and families and the local community is engaged in programs around the educational system and area development. The school curriculum includes mathematics, science, history, drawing pictures, and singing. American Assistance for Cambodia provides funding for English and computer skills training. Most of the students cannot speak the Cambodian language and so the school provides a translator (an ethnic minority woman) to help the students and teachers.

The Honolulu-Pusan-Shimbashi-Taipei Rotary Club School, Ratanakiri Province, Cambodia
Partner: American Assistance for Cambodia
Founded in 1999 and located in a remote rural area, The Honolulu-Pusan-Shimbashi-Taipei Rotary Club School has three rooms, a computer lab, a sports field and a vegetable garden. There are 264 students ages 9 – 17 in grades 1 – 6, 127 of whom are girls. The curriculum includes mathematics, history, language, science, and drawing plus English and computer skills training supported by American Assistance for Cambodia. Extra-curricular activities include reading, playing football and volleyball, and gardening. To encourage families to keep their children in school, teachers visit students’ families periodically to discuss the benefits of education.

Preap Sar School, Ratanakiri Province, Cambodia
Partner: American Assistance for Cambodia
Founded in 2002, the Preap Sar School addresses the problems facing students in the Kreung ethnic minority, especially girls who are encouraged to remain shy, quiet, and at home for farm work. The school has a Girls Be Ambitious Project, which focuses on getting girls in the surrounding poor rural communities to attend school. There are 77 girls and 110 boys aged approximately 9-15 who are enrolled in the school. The state curriculum includes math, science, history, drawing, and singing. In addition, the school has special sponsored courses on computer skills and English by the American Assistance for Cambodia.

The Ruth G. Kimball School, Ratanakiri Province, Cambodia
Partner: American Assistance for Cambodia
Founded in 2002, students from two to three local villages attend the Ruth G. Kimball School. The number of the girls that attend school in this area is less than the number of boys. This is because of their cultural practice of having the girls work at home and in the rice fields. The girls want to join school, but they don’t have any explanation/reason on how to get this opportunity. At school, most of the students want to become teachers in their own villages. They want to build the knowledge of the next generation. The school building has four rooms. Three classrooms are used for the state curriculum (Public School) and one classroom is for additional skills, English and Computer.

The Sapporo Acasia Lions Club School, Ratanakiri Province, Cambodia
Partner: American Assistance for Cambodia
Founded in 1999, the Sapporo Acasia Lions Club School enrolls 129 students ages 9 – 17, 43 girls and 86 boys. The school has two classrooms and a room for teaching English and computer skills. Extra-curricular activities include reading books and playing football and volleyball.

India
Educating girls is not a priority in much of India, particularly in impoverished and rural areas. In traditional communities, girls are expected to stay home to do domestic work including cooking, cleaning and tending younger children. In many poor families, girls are also hired out as child labor to supplement the family income.

Choti Sabla Manch (Forum for Young Girls), Delhi, India
Partner: Action India
Founded in 1990 and serving girls ages 13 – 18, the Choti Sabla Programme is a grassroots laboratory focusing on the anxieties and aspirations of adolescent girls. The philosophy behind the program is that in order to have a meaningful impact on adolescents, it is necessary to work holistically through broad-based programs covering education and vocational training, health and nutrition, and developing self-esteem. The core program consists of providing knowledge about the body, developing life-skills and legal literacy and HIV/AIDS awareness.

Fabindia School, Bali, Rajasthan, India
Partner: JB Scholars Fund
The Fabindia School was established in 1992 by William and John Bissell. The school is based in rural Rajasthan where literacy rates are extremely low, especially among women. From the beginning, the school has been committed to encouraging education for girls in a region where most parents who can afford an English school choose to only send their sons. To encourage the enrollment of girls, the school subsidizes their tuition. The coed student body includes approximately 150 boys and 100 girls in grades preK – 10. The school is committed to enrolling an additional 50 girls, and to maintain gender parity in enrollment.

Panchayat Union Primary School, Tamil Nadu, India
Partner: JONG
Panchayat Union Primary School was founded in 2000. Till this period, no females of the local communities were allowed to get educated. In 1971, 10% of girl children were admitted to primary schools. In 1980 it was 20% and in 1990 it was 35% and by 2000 it came up to 45%. Now, there are 60% of girl children in primary and middle school. The women self-help groups organized by JONG in the surrounding local 5 villages made repeated attempts to appeal to the government from 1995 and succeeded in getting this primary school in the year 2000. In a region that does not value the education of a girl due to social beliefs and poverty, the Panchayat Union Primary School encourages the girl students to feel they deserve a dignified life and stay in school by help with funding for school supplies.

Salai Gaon Middle School, Harpur Village, India
Partner: Action India
Located in Harpur Village, where most girls receive no formal education, 40% of the co-ed student body of the Salai Gaon Middle School consists of girls. In Harpur Village, a major impediment to girls’ education is the fact that no high schools exist to allow girls to continue learning past the middle school level. To increase educational opportunities in Harpur Village (and thus reducing child labor) GLI’s partner, Action India, has initiated grassroots campaigns that spark civic activity and energize the community to demand its rights. The cost of educating a girl for a year is $34 with additional fees required for uniforms, stationery, and books.

The Veerni School, Jodhpur, India
Partner: The Veerni Project
In most Rajasthani villages, government schools serve the village populations through mostly primary schools. Government schools offering classes 8-12 are often far from the villages and parents consider it unsafe for their daughters to travel. Founded in 2005, The Veerni School offers scholarships to girls to attend a boarding school, with tuition and fees all covered. In setting up this secondary school, the goal is to keep girls in school until they are at least 18 years old. Educating up to 85, the girls receive everything they need from Veerni including tuition, room and board, healthcare, meals, supplies, and uniforms.

Nepal
Although women and girls make up 51% of the population in Nepal, the patriarchal society often denies girls education and development opportunities. Families generally view the education of their girls as a waste of time and resources comparing it to “pouring water into sand.” Many girls are married as child brides and are forced to stay at home with domestic duties. UNICEF reported that 35-40% of girls are married before the age of 15. Poverty and social norms make girls second class citizens, favoring boys being sent to school. A national Nepal report shows only 1 in 10 girls will attend primary school.

Shree Tribeni Secondary School
Partner: Sahayatri Nepal

The Shree Tribeni Secondary school is a local government funded school located in the eastern region of Nepal. Providing education in an economically depressed community, the children learn various subjects including Nepalese, math, science, English, prevocational studies, health, and social studies. The looks to address the impediments to girls’ education by sharing ideas and dialogue on this issue, supporting the girl child in her studies, starting a project called Child to Child, and creating awareness programs for the parents in the surrounding communities.

Pakistan
With respect to the Education Index, Pakistan ranks among the bottom 15 countries of the world. The net primary school enrollment rate in Pakistan is 46%, the lowest in South Asia with girls comprising only a third of total students enrolled. The overall literacy rate is 63.7% for males versus 39.2% for females. Among the obstacles girls face to attending school are: a traditional preference for educating boys, the lack of schools for girls, a tradition of keeping girls home to help with domestic chores, child care and fieldwork, an unwillingness to allow girls to travel outside the home even to attend school (a major impediment when there are very few village schools).

DIL Model School, Pind Malkan, Pakistan
Partner: Developments in Literacy
The DIL Model School was founded in April 1998 and now serves 46 girls and 78 boys, ranging in age from 4 – 10. The annual cost for educating a girl is $13.

Madina Colony School, Khairpur, Pakistan
Partner: Developments in Literacy
Madina Colony School is located in a slum area where most of the community members are poor laborers who have migrated from the rural areas and are neither aware of the importance of girls’ education nor have the funds to educate their children, preferring to have them work and earn money to help with the daily expenses. Founded in 1998, the Madina Colony School uses the local Government Boys Primary School building after the regular school day. The 60 students, 50 of whom are girls, ages 5 – 16 are taught by two female teachers. The total cost per student per year is 2500 rupees (which includes their tuition fee, uniform, other school expenses and pocket money) or approximately $42.

Mukhtaran Mai School for Girls, Meerwala, Pakistan
Partner: AANA
The Mukhtaran Mai School was founded in 2001 by Mukhtaran Mai. Mukhtaran Mai was the victim of a gang rape ordered by the local village council in retribution for an infraction allegedly committed by her brother. In the aftermath of the rape of Mukhtaran Mai refused to commit suicide as rape victims are expected to do and instead took her rapists to court. Using the funds she received from the Pakistani government and donations from the international community, she opened this school for girls in 2003, the first school for girls in the city of Meerwala, Pakistan and the only school in the immediate region. 200 girls ages 5 – 13 (although there are some students as old as 21) attend this five room concrete school, many traveling up to 2 hours daily to get to school. Students study English, Urdu, Islamic studies, math, science, gender sensitivity training and women’s’ rights.

Nilore Junior School, Islamabad, Pakistan
Partner: IBITDA
Established in March 1999 in a small village 25 km east of Pakistan’s capital city Islamabad, the Nilore Junior School addresses impediments to girls’ education by working on the attitudes of community towards girls’ education, holding frequent parent-teacher meetings, community outreach by the teachers, employing an all female staff and offering subsidized education for siblings, so that if a boy is enrolled in the school, the sister will be enrolled with a heavily subsidized fee. The school's curriculum has introduced art, human rights, environmental awareness, and personal hygiene and safety. The standard subjects taught include math, science, Urdu, English and social studies. The 109 students, the majority of whom are girls, are ages 4 – 15.

Sojhro Model School Sagyoon, Kairpur, Pakistan
Partner: Developments in Literacy
Founded in 2001, the Sojhro Model School Sagyoon serves 87 students ages 8 – 13 years and employs an all female staff. The cost of educating a student is approximately 2973 rupees per year/ per student, or approximately $50. Siblings of students and children who cannot afford to pay on a monthly basis do not pay school tuition charges.

Vietnam
In Vietnam, girls and boys go to primary and secondary school. However, due to poverty and limited resources girls may stop school sooner than boys to help out with family chores. It is seen that boys may have a greater job opportunities and use of their education than girls. In addition, children living with HIV/AIDS are not able to attend public schools due to the stigma of disease within the culture.

Tam Binh 2, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
Partner: Worldwide Orphans
Within the Tam Binh Orphanage 2, a school has been set up for the children who cannot attend public school due to the cultural stigma of living with HIV/AIDS. There are two classrooms with blackboards, and the teachers come to the orphanage to teach. In addition to math and Vietnamese language and literature, the Worldwide Orphans supports additional educational opportunities for the children, including child development programs for caretakers, an 1-on-1 early intervention program, arts and music, and English classes.

Central and South America

Brazil
Although Brazil is a country with technological advances similar to that of the US, it is also the country with the largest socioeconomic class divide in the world. The large and growing population of the favelas (shanty towns), which are usually located in the hills or far removed from the better schools, are invisible in terms of the offering of educational opportunities even at the basic levels of education. In addition, teenage pregnancy and prostitution are problems that are not being actively addressed throughout many communities.

Cinema Nosso, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
In 2000, Cinema Nosso was founded as a workshop organizer for the 200 young people cast in the film “City of God”. After the completion of the film, with the determination of a group of students and guidance of the filmmakers, Cinema Nossa has been structured into an organization that offers a unique solution to the problem of the youth in the favelas: information, training in media-skills, access to the job market as well as higher learning opportunities, and powerful means of expression. In the “All girls program” in the Cidade de Deus (City of God) community, girls and young women ages 11-25 learn technical aspects of the film as well as publicity, computer editing, and basic office skills. This program is housed in the community itself in a residential dwelling solely used for the program. The main program in the downtown Centro area is housed in a three-story building in Rio de Janeiro. It follows the same course of study but consists of a co-ed group of students, the majority of whom are female.

Chile
Fundcion Origen, Santiago, Chile
Partner: The Resource Foundation
Fundacion Origen is a coeducational agro-industrial secondary school with a mission to provide at-risk young women and men with both theoretical and practical training. In addition to traditional academic coursework, students learn to use agricultural techniques that are compatible with the environment and protect the natural resources available to them. Origen also encourages its students to adopt positive social values and good work ethics. The school involves the family and the community in its work. Eighty percent of the school’s students live below the poverty line and the school has a permanent waiting list.

Escuela Agroecologica, Chile
Partner: The Resource Foundation
Founded in 1991, it resulted from the vision to ensure opportunities for learning and development for all children, and to professionalize agriculture careers in order to reduce migration to cities and the weakening of the family structure in Chile. Over the years EAP has succeeded in bringing more girls to school, adjusting its initial student ratio from virtually no girls to about 40% girls/60% boys. In 2000 The Resource Foundation helped the EAP raise funds in order to accept 91 new female students whose agro-technical school closed due to administrative difficulties. There are 116 girls and 198 boys aged 14-18 who take a curriculum of Spanish and Communication, History and Social Science, English, Math, Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Athletics, Art, Music, Counseling, Art Workshop, Ecological Workshop, and Agroecological Workshop.

Colombia
While there is nearly universal free primary education in Colombia, the realities of poverty, urban migration and unequal distribution of responsibilities in rural and marginal urban populations has resulted in the exclusion of disproportionably large numbers of girls from middle school, secondary and post-secondary education. The lack of material and human resources for education as well as a lack of vision about the equal status of women exacerbates the logistical impediments to girls’ education.

Colegio Baha’i Ruhi Arbab, Puerto Tejada, Colombia
Partner: The Resource Foundation
Colegio Baha’i Ruhi Arbab is a coeducational school for students age 3 – 15. The curriculum and learning environment of Colegio Baha’i Ruhi Arbab has been specifically developed with a perspective of gender equality and the role of women and girls in the construction of a just and unified society.

Costa Rica
Although Costa Rica has provided equal opportunity for education since the 1948 civil war, as a practical matter in rural areas, girls have a far lower participation rate than boys. Major impediments to education in rural areas include: geographical access to school, especially high schools; a tradition of early marriage for girls (typically between 15-17 years old) which ends a girls schooling; and the lack of practical skills training which would prepare girls for work in the local job market.

Escuela el Castillo, San Carlos, Costa Rica
Partner: Rustic Pathways
Founded in 1985, Escuela El Castillo offers computer and English classes for women and girls in order to teach them skills that will help them find work in a region that is fast becoming dependent on tourism. The school enrolls 70 students ages 5 – 15 in grades K – 6. The curriculum includes sciences, social studies, Spanish, math, and agriculture. Extra-curricular activities include soccer games with other schools, games, and dances.

Ecuador
Escuelita Guitig, Cotopaxi, Ecuador
Partner: Fundacion Paramo
The Guitig School is located in a rural area south of Quito, Ecuador’s capital city. Founded 25 years ago, the primary school currently has about 90 students. Because of poverty in the area and the lack of Governmental support of rural education, the school lacks many resources. The area is located at about 2700 meters above sea level. The school has six buildings with one classroom each. In each classroom, one or two grades will meet for lessons. There is a very basic kitchen where the mothers prepare the lunch for the children. In addition, there are a few computers in a computer room, but no internet available at the school because of the cost. The Guitig School utilizes the Train the Trainers program in developing their teacher’s skills and curriculum for the students.

El Salvador
In El Salvador, women and girls have typically been denied access to education and higher-level employment opportunities. According to the Ministry of Education, the rural population, in particular female school-aged children, have the least access to education for a variety of reasons including: lack of economic resources, girls joining the labor force to supplement family income or staying home to perform domestic chores, and an extremely high teen pregnancy rate (17% of girls under the age of 15 get pregnant; 41% get pregnant by the age of 19 and of this percentage, 81% abandon their studies permanently).

El Pepeto Tutorial Classroom, San Salvador, El Salvador
Partner: The Resource Foundation
Founded in 2001, the El Pepeto Tutorial Classroom enrolls students ages 7 – 13, all of whom attend free of charge. To support the school, school facilitators and the community organize fundraising activities to cover certain costs, including electricity, water, bathroom supplies and recreational activities for the students. The El Pepeto Tutorial Classroom works to ensure the enrollment of girls by engaging parents in their children’s education and providing school supplies to the students. Parents and school facilitators meet to address self-esteem and moral values and create a plan and goals for their children’s development.

Sala de Nivelación Aguaje Escondido, Chalatenango, El Salvador
Partner: The Resource Foundation
Founded in 2002, Sala de Nivelación Aguaje Escondido is a place where boys and girls with low-achievement, risk of grade repetition and/or who are in jeopardy of dropping-out completely, attend classes part-time in between their regular school schedules. There is a library with space for them to complete their homework attended by a facilitator who supervises their activities. There are 17 students (11 girls and 6 boys) who attend the school. The Sala de Nivelacion Aguaje provides school supplies to children including books, uniforms, backpacks etc. in order to lessen the economic burden on families.

Sala de Nivelacion El Paraiso, Chalatenango, El Salvador
Partner: The Resource Foundation
Founded in 2003, Sala de Nivelacion is a place where boys and girls with low-achievement, risk of grade repetition and/or who are in jeopardy of dropping-out completely, attend classes part-time in between their regular school schedules. There is a library with space for them to complete their homework attended by a facilitator who supervises their activities. There are 54 students (30 girls and 24 boys) ages 7 – 15 who attend the school. Annual tuition for educating a girl in the Sala de Nivelacion El Paraison is approximately $165, which includes school supplies and meals.

Sala de Nivelacion El Conacaste, Chalatenango, El Salvador
Partner: The Resource Foundation
Founded in 2002, Sala de Nivelacion El Conacaste is a place where boys and girls with low-achievement, risk of grade repetition and/or who are in jeopardy of dropping-out completely, attend classes part-time in between their regular school schedules. There is a library with space for them to complete their homework attended by a facilitator who supervises their activities. There are 38 students (22 girls and 16 boys) ages 7 – 15 who attend the school. Tuition for educating a girl in the Sala de Nivelacion El Conacaste is approximately $165, which includes school supplies and meals.

South Pacific

Fiji Islands
The Asian Development Bank’s March 2006 Country Gender Assessment reports that education levels and achievements are fairly equal in Fiji but there are large gender gaps in terms of equal opportunity for women in employment. Girls must develop strong skills while in school so that they can transcend this gap.

Vaturova Koroalau High School, Savusavu, Fiji Islands
Partner: Rustic Pathways
Founded in 1979, Vaturova Koroalau High School enrolls 135 students of which 40% are girls. Subjects include math, English, science, geography, history, industrial arts, commercial studies, and Fijian language. Extra curricular activities include sports (net ball and rugby), music (singing), arts and crafts.