Happy Not Mother’s Day from GambiaRising (with photos)
May 13, 2012
Here are the facts of life for a subsistence farmer in west Africa: There is no safety net. If you are lucky enough to live long enough to be old, you will live with the family of one of your sons. When your daughters are old enough to bear children, they will be "given in marriage" to someone who will pay you a dowry, which will be a little welcome income to help provide for the rest of your family. Your daughter will then be part of her husband's family and thereby, his parents' safety net. Often, the man who can pay a higher dowry will have more than one wife. The other wives will even sometimes encourage this, since it gives him a new sexual partner and takes pressure off them, and also gives them a new set of hands to help with the labor in the compound and on the farm.
This means that once she reaches puberty, a young Gambian girl is ever more likely to be given in marriage. It is usually not a happy occasion for her. But if you are a Gambian parent, with little income and several children, and school fees are eating up your little discretionary income, you simply have to allocate your funds to your son(s). And there is little upside to keeping your daughter in school; it is just an expense with no payback.
Unless someone says they will pay your daughter's school fees.
In the villages around Fula Bantang in the Central River Region, that is what GambiaRising is doing. Although our broader mission is to help any student who without our help, would not be able to stay in school, that formula has led more and more to supporting girls, and in particular, girls of child-bearing age.
Today, we have 114 students receiving financial support to stay in school.
Of those, 71 are in grades 9 or higher (fees and other costs go up as you rise through the grades so that is when students start to drop out).
Of those in grade 9 or higher, 62 are girls.
Girls who without our support, would most likely be married off by now, and in most cases, mothers.
So today I want to celebrate those girls who are breaking with tradition, and are getting an education past the point where anyone would expect them to do so. In most cases, they have sought us out and have bargained with their parents for the chance to stay in school, if only they can find someone to pay their fees.
I have photos of half the girls who are in school because of the generosity of GambiaRising's donors and share them with you below. There are still too few of us, and there are many more girls to help. But on this Mother's Day weekend, I want to celebrate these brave girls, and thank my friends who are helping them fulfill their dreams of an education. Each one of them has their own story. But their faces tell a story of its own. Please scroll down and look at them, and think about the difference our donors are making in their lives (even if the student being supported is a boy, you know that support frees up other funds to support a girl as well.)
One day most of these girls will be mothers. But not yet.
Father Jean is heading for Fula Bantang next week to pay the final school year bills for our students. This is time of the year when the income from last year's harvest has run out and students are most likely to drop out of school because they can't pay the final term's fees. I know he is going to call me next week and ask if we can support some more deserving students. If you have ever considered supporting a student, we now have a way that makes it easy: monthly payments. For as little as $12.50 per month, charged to your credit card or PayPal account, you can keep a Gambian student in school, and thereby change their life. 100% of your donation will go to paying their school fees and other direct school expenses. It is definitely one of the best payback investments I am aware of.
We can't expand this work without adding more hands pulling on the rope, but thanks to this new system, it doesn't have to hurt that much. Please consider it; the monthly payment button is at the bottom of this page: http://www.gambiarising.org/donate.html
Mike McConnell
GambiaRising
Here are the facts of life for a subsistence farmer in west Africa: There is no safety net. If you are lucky enough to live long enough to be old, you will live with the family of one of your sons. When your daughters are old enough to bear children, they will be "given in marriage" to someone who will pay you a dowry, which will be a little welcome income to help provide for the rest of your family. Your daughter will then be part of her husband's family and thereby, his parents' safety net. Often, the man who can pay a higher dowry will have more than one wife. The other wives will even sometimes encourage this, since it gives him a new sexual partner and takes pressure off them, and also gives them a new set of hands to help with the labor in the compound and on the farm.
This means that once she reaches puberty, a young Gambian girl is ever more likely to be given in marriage. It is usually not a happy occasion for her. But if you are a Gambian parent, with little income and several children, and school fees are eating up your little discretionary income, you simply have to allocate your funds to your son(s). And there is little upside to keeping your daughter in school; it is just an expense with no payback.
Unless someone says they will pay your daughter's school fees.
In the villages around Fula Bantang in the Central River Region, that is what GambiaRising is doing. Although our broader mission is to help any student who without our help, would not be able to stay in school, that formula has led more and more to supporting girls, and in particular, girls of child-bearing age.
Today, we have 114 students receiving financial support to stay in school.
Of those, 71 are in grades 9 or higher (fees and other costs go up as you rise through the grades so that is when students start to drop out).
Of those in grade 9 or higher, 62 are girls.
Girls who without our support, would most likely be married off by now, and in most cases, mothers.
So today I want to celebrate those girls who are breaking with tradition, and are getting an education past the point where anyone would expect them to do so. In most cases, they have sought us out and have bargained with their parents for the chance to stay in school, if only they can find someone to pay their fees.
I have photos of half the girls who are in school because of the generosity of GambiaRising's donors and share them with you below. There are still too few of us, and there are many more girls to help. But on this Mother's Day weekend, I want to celebrate these brave girls, and thank my friends who are helping them fulfill their dreams of an education. Each one of them has their own story. But their faces tell a story of its own. Please scroll down and look at them, and think about the difference our donors are making in their lives (even if the student being supported is a boy, you know that support frees up other funds to support a girl as well.)
One day most of these girls will be mothers. But not yet.
Father Jean is heading for Fula Bantang next week to pay the final school year bills for our students. This is time of the year when the income from last year's harvest has run out and students are most likely to drop out of school because they can't pay the final term's fees. I know he is going to call me next week and ask if we can support some more deserving students. If you have ever considered supporting a student, we now have a way that makes it easy: monthly payments. For as little as $12.50 per month, charged to your credit card or PayPal account, you can keep a Gambian student in school, and thereby change their life. 100% of your donation will go to paying their school fees and other direct school expenses. It is definitely one of the best payback investments I am aware of.
We can't expand this work without adding more hands pulling on the rope, but thanks to this new system, it doesn't have to hurt that much. Please consider it; the monthly payment button is at the bottom of this page: http://www.gambiarising.org/donate.html
Mike McConnell
GambiaRising
