To significantly increase the number of children in underserved populations around the globe who have access to quality and lasting education.
Growth Through Learning is a secular organization that supports education and development by providing high school scholarships to girls and young women in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Since 1997, 1500 scholars have graduated high school through the support of GTL. These scholarships last 4-6 academic years as long as the student keeps their grades up.
We are proud to have partnered with GTL supporting the education of girls in East Africa and have been able to see the real impact that access to quality education provides for the entire region. The percentage of primary school age children not in school has dropped from 32% to 8%between 2002 and 2011in East Africa. This is hopeful progress but the percentage of students, especially young girls, who continue on to secondary school is extremely low. GTL works to support girls move beyond primary school and make sure that those successes reach girls in the most underserved regions in rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa. Our substantial investment in the mission of GTL is directly funneled to more scholarships and improved access. To learn more about the amazing work of Growth Through Learning, visit the link above.
Guatemala’s western highland’s exhibit one of the most extreme combinations of systemic poverty, illiteracy and inequality in the hemisphere. Today, indigenous Mayans in these regions suffer from poverty, malnutrition, high rates of illiteracy and low levels of educational attainment. 62% of children in Guatemala never make it to middle school. 95% of poor, rural students never graduate from high school. The majority of Mayans do not have access to affordable, quality education which allows for this cycle of poverty to continue. The Cooperative for Education is fighting to change that and we are honored to partner with them to create this change. CoEd provides full academic scholarships to hundreds of indigenous Mayan students in impoverished communities but it is also provides a teacher liaison, a staff of trained professionals, a counselor, student mentors and education for the parents to ensure that the students have all the support they need to follow their dreams.
CoEd has also launched its “Thousand Girls Initiative” which focuses on improving access to quality education for girls in Guatemala. In the region, girls are traditionally not supported in their desire to go to school. Often, when parents have to decide which child to educate, they prioritize the boys and the girls get left behind. In Guatemala as a whole, 80% of men are literate compared to 58% of women. According the USAID, educating girls yields a higher rate of return than any other investment available in the developing world. We agree. Visit the CoEd website above to learn more.