What Are the Reasons Why Girl Child Education Is Important?
Though there are many reasons why girl child education is important. We will focus on three main areas that can have the most impact on a girl’s future.
Health and Safety
If a girl is never taught to read or write and have basic math skills, she will be vulnerable to situations that jeopardize her and her family’s health and safety. One important area is in reading labels for food and medicine, as well as basic healthcare information. She or someone in her family could consume something unsafe, resulting in illness they cannot afford. She might also be asked to sign a contract for work that turns out to be akin to indentured servitude, a situation too many vulnerable people find themselves in.1
Her Children’s Future
In the most destitute places, the cycles of poverty trap generations. A family may be able to afford to send their children to school, but the children are at an immediate disadvantage if their parents are illiterate. A mother who has never learned to read or write cannot help her children with their school work. If they fall behind, there are not always resources to get them back on track. Education is one of the most important keys to breaking the cycle of poverty.2
Developing Marketable Skills
An education for a woman is a key step in securing a source of income that can lift her out of an impoverished lifestyle. Being able to read and write will help her support a spouse in agriculture or in starting her own sewing business. Her world could also be opened up to dream about greater opportunities, like going to college.
But it all starts with education.
GFA’s child sponsorship program is a great way to help girls get the education they desperately need. Your $35/month helps children, their families and their communities break the cycle of poverty through community-wide solutions which include some or all of the following: opportunities for education, medical care, protection against malnutrition, clean water and more. Through this provision, the people in these communities feel loved, wanted and hopeful, and they have the opportunity to experience God’s love firsthand.
Undoubtedly, learning to read and write is one way the Word becomes flesh and dwells among us. This, indeed, is a spiritual miracle, the one we most long to see in their lives. We can help change the destiny of these children through sponsorship.
Children are waiting today for the chance to break free. You could be who they need to take that first step.
Learn more about gender inequality in school1 Balachandran, Manu. “India has 18 million modern slaves – at least five times more than any other country in the world.” May 31, 2016. https://qz.com/india/695565/india-has-18-million-modern-slaves-at-least-five-times-more-than-any-other-country-in-the-world/.
2 Burton Mains, Karen. “Literacy: One of the great miracle cures.” GFA World. September 3, 2019. https://www.gfa.org/special-report/literacy-miracle-cure-illiteracy/.