International Day of the Girl Child – ‘Keeping Girls in School’
11 October 2020
Good Neighbours prioritises work on Child’s Rights, with particular attention to the needs and issues girls face around the world. Today, on International Day of the Girl Child, we want to showcase the work in Zambia that is helping girls stay in school and end child marriages.
The Government of Zambia’s ‘Keeping Girls in School’ initiative conducted a study indicating about 20 million secondary school-aged girls may never re-enroll in classes after the Coronavirus crisis. Early marriage and pregnancy increase the likelihood of school dropout, and those from poor families are less likely to be able to continue to afford education especially with the economic shock of COVID-19.
Good Neighbours in Zambia has girls in mind during their COVID-19 response and have multiple ongoing and past projects geared towards secondary school-aged girls (the age where the rate of dropout and marriages starts to increase rapidly), with expansions of schools in prime locations, new classrooms, science/computer labs, washrooms, girls’ boarding facilities and distribution of renewable sanitary pads as well as engaging the communities and teachers, through teachers’ training on counselling; advocacy campaigns and training of community leaders to help end child marriage.
