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 more information or to see photos of the girls and the Liberian schools or to see our five-year plan for Liberia, visit the Girls Education International blog.

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

Since its inception, GEI has sought to support the education of girls in the northern areas of Pakistan, specifically Baltistan. As demonstrated daily in the news, working in Pakistan poses complex and dynamic challenges, particularly for US-based organizations. As a result, GEI has been exploring partnership opportunities with Pakistani organizations that specialize in improving primary education, particularly in the northern region, and we have identified a couple of excellent candidates. Once selected, GEI will rely on our local partner to evaluate communities for education improvement projects, oversee the implementation of such projects--including ensuring that they meet local and federal education criteria and standards and cultural norms, and provide an accessible advisor for community leaders and teachers. Though we have had a long-held hope of improving educational opportunities for girls in the village of Khane in Baltistan, it might not be possible at this time. Thus, we are reaching out to NGOs in other mountainous regions of Pakistan.