Girls learn
When Bangladeshi families have money to educate their children they spend it on their sons. Girls work in the home and in factories. Former missionaries Rev Andrew and Rosemary Symonds describe how the Church of Bangladesh has responded.
Girls in the slums of Bangladesh are very vulnerable.
Our surveys identified a large number of girls with very little education. Although in principle free, primary education costs families, as books, uniforms and additional tuition have to be paid for, and it is the boys of the families who tend to receive what money is available for schooling.
By the age of 12 most of the girls surveyed were working long hours in the garment factories. To establish an education programme for them was a high priority for the Church of Bangladesh (CoB).
Prostitution is probably the only alternative for many of these girls
Sadly, the girls have very little free time, because when they are not working in the factories – 10 or 12 hours, six days a week – they have to cook, clean and look after other children at home. However, CoB member Lovely has started the Duaripara Family Development programme – basic literacy and numeracy classes for girls between eight and 14 years, and each day the number of girls arriving at the classes increases. In March 2005 she was holding two classes for about 50 girls with little education.
The animated chatter and responses of the girls is elating. They have so much enthusiasm simply to be in class, to be together and to learn. Their eagerness is a reminder of how little is necessary to bring positive change to people's lives.
One afternoon I sat in a class for 30 girls over eight years of age who had received no education. At the end of teaching the lesson Lovely reminded the children to wash and to ensure that their clothes were clean.
Knowledge is power: A girl in Bangladesh carries books. Girls who can read will be better able to work their way out of poverty and to fight for their rights.
I then became aware of the dirty, tattered and holey clothes many were wearing. It was apparent that for some the clothes they were wearing were the extent of their wardrobe, and I doubted whether many of these frilly dresses could withstand any further beating on the ground during washing.
A quick meeting after the class brought forward our desire to provide school uniforms for the girls.
Busyness filled the following few days as we visited the material wholesale market in Old Dhaka for bright and beautiful patterned material and met with the tailoring section of the Trade School in Savar to talk about design. The end result has produced much excitement amongst the girls who love the bright orange and red salwar kameze. Our classrooms have been transformed by colour.
Our next project is to provide every pupil with a cheap pair of flip-flop sandals so that each girl has a pair of shoes to wear.
Why education?
One of our motives for setting up the Duaripara Family Development programme was our concern about the effect of a new garment industry trade agreement and the loss of quotas on factory girls – forseeing that Bangladesh would lose its international market and that unemployment amongst the girls would increase. Already since January 2005 Bangladesh has lost about 20 per cent of its market.
We now want to develop the project into job training if and when the garment industry suffers badly. We are aware that prostitution is probably the only alternative for many of these girls.
We are also committed to education for a greater reason.
Our concern is with the nature of poverty. Poverty is not simply having no money, it should be defined mainly in terms of deprivation and helplessness.
Our education programme is about empowering these girls to become fully human, to discover "fullness of life". Lack of motivation, dependency and lack of extension all arise out of distorted development.
These girls will also be able to hold their own in society – not be cheated, know their rights and be aware of others.
Women are the powerhouses of families. If we can help these girls to grow as people, there is hope for the future.
United Nations (UN) education and gender equality Millennium
Development Goals (MDGs)
In 2000 the heads of state and government of all 191 UN member countries agreed a set of Millennium Development Goals for poverty reduction. Two of them relate to education and gender equality:
Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education
Target: Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling.
Goal 3. Promote gender equality and empower women Target: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015.
What progress has been made? Enrolment in primary education has been increasing but the figures indicate that a number of countries are still unlikely to meet the 2015 target. The rise in the number of girls attending school has been faster and greater than among boys and in some countries it is boys who are not in primary school. These include Bangladesh, Nauru, Kiribati and Namibia. However, in most cases it is girls who are missing out on education. Of the more than 100 million primary school-aged children around the world not attending classes, 57 per cent are girls.
Source: UNESCO
And how are we doing?
Where do we need to act on this issue in our own context? Are the children – boys and girls – of our churches and communities, being educated and empowered to fulfil their potential and play a part in God's mission? What more needs to be done?