Bong and Margibi counties, Liberia

We provided 47 girls in the mountainous regions of Liberia, in Bong and Margibi counties, with education scholarships for the 2008/2009 school year and have procured sufficient funding through the Inspiring Soles Grant to pay for the 2009/2010 school year. We are working with the Liberian NGO Common Ground Society and its program director Emily Sherman-Davis. The total cost of providing them with scholarships is $3,000. Plus, we are raising an additional $1,500 in order to pay Emily to regularly monitor the progress of the girls. The $1,500 includes transportation, lodging, and food costs for Emily to travel twice per year and also for her to find and communicate with the awardees of the scholarship.

We plan on making this a long-term project, adding new girls each time our current ones graduate. This basic scholarship program costs $4,500 each year.

We also hope to expand the program to eventually include 100 girls, and to offer all our girls an after-school reproductive health education class, a library of school-related materials, a weekend tutoring program, and  additional stipends to cover the costs of uniforms, meals, textbooks, and other needs. The addition of a reproductive health education program and stipends to pay all the girls' educational needs will cost an additional $17,000 per year.

For the latest update on our project, please see our spring 2010 newsletter by clicking here.

Kathmandu, Nepal

Since 2004 we have provided two young girls, Nisa and Sonam, with $100 per girl education scholarships to attend school in Kathmandu.  The founders of Girls Education International started the scholarship project in Nepal two years prior to creating the nonprofit.  We decided to fold the project into our nonprofit because it supports girls' education.  However, our current focus is to work exclusively with female-run female-staffed Non-Governmental Organizations to support their models of education for girls.  We will not consider projects unless they fall under this criteria.  

Pakistan

Girls Education International (GEI) partnered with the Pakistani women’s rights organization Bedari late in 2009 and started its joint secondary school education project this March, 2010. 

GEI is providing a total of $5000 toward a Bedari-designed scholarship model for girls, which will be implemented in two villages: Laphi and Sar Kalan. Both these villages lie in the northern mountains of the Salt Range in the Punjab region. Originally GEI planned to work only with girls in Laphi, but nine Laphi families decided against educating their girls. Thus, the opportunity was opened to various families in neighboring Sar Kalan, nine of which signed on. A total of 30 girls will now attend the Government Higher Secondary School, Buchal Kalan, district Chakwal.

The money provided to Bedari for the 2010-2011 school year will pay for transportation, school fees, two sets of uniforms, books, and other school supplies for the girls, as well as a 15% stipend for Bedari to administer the program.

To keep up on the latest news on our projects, please visit our blog by clicking here.