Programs
We believe it is a matter of justice that each and every girl gets the chance to go to school.
All of our schools are built in rural areas and are meant to provide access to everyone – no matter how poor – to get to go to school. While the lack of schools disproportionately affects the rural poor, it is even more difficult for girls to get an education. It is not that parents do not love their daughters, it is poverty that will force a parent to choose their son over their daughter; we therefore offer ~$75 scholarships to all of the girls from these villages (about two-thirds of tuition) so that every parent can send their daughter to school. It has always been our goal to have at least 50% of our students be female. Currently, 9,562 (54.8%) of our students are girls; we recognize this success is in large part to the scholarships.
Our scholarship program is set up in a unique way because of our commitment to self-sustaining schools. Scholarship money does not go directly to a school to cover operating costs such as salaries, maintenance and essential education supplies. Rather it indirectly goes to schools in the form of strategic interventions such as providing library books, science lab equipment, textbooks and other important supplies that schools would otherwise be unable to afford. The result of the scholarship program is thousands more girls in school who would otherwise not be able to because of the reduced cost for them and every student gets a better education because they have all of these important resources and materials that enhance their education experience.
