Finance safe girls education in Africa

We started the second half of 2009 and the MEpM program is ongoing. The dormitory of MEpM is increasingly appropriate to the needs of the girls.
As implemented activities, successes and challenges of this period, first saying that the academic performance of the girls was assessed in a joint meeting of the FLM, district board of education, the secondary school of Magude and the girls parents in the last 1st August. In general, the performance is good but the newest have serious difficulties in basic subjects (Mathematics and Portuguese). The truth is that for FLM's investment the performance is not the most desirable.
In this sense, FLM bought more school supplies and found too teachers to work with the girls to retrieve their grades. In agreement with parents, the foundation established tighter control, advice and guidance in sexual behavior in order to exclude the threat of adolescent pregnancy that we were victims twice in the program. In addition we already taught three lectures and activities for guidance in sexual reproductive health and HIV / AIDS, and for this we were supported by two NGOs in equipment and training of assistants, Caritas Diosesana and N'weti.

Second, we will start soon the work to finish the second dormitory of MEpM to place more 22 girls that will apply to the program in 2010. Outside this, the major challenges that present themselves at the moment are: the lack of water in the district where is located the dormitories and the urgently necessity to vaccinate girls against some opportunistic diseases as meningitis.

Finally, the Foundation is about to finish the second dormitory this year to make the program sustainable, this will permanently increase access to secondary school for girls far from Magude town by more than 30%. The foundation is also working to the expansion of program curriculum next year to include computer education and is working to have water in the dormitory.

Pictures:

• Montage of the 8th grade girls (one is missing!). (JPG)
• Constancia, the live-in social worker, in the house at lunchtime (JPG)
• The girls walking to school under the big Magude sky. (JPG)