Supporting girls
Supporting girls and women
In many countries girls and women have a hard lot. Girls go to school less frequently than boys and are often the victims of violence. Girls and women often do not have the freedom to make decisions about their own lives. That is why Kindernothilfe and its partners focus on supporting them. Equal rights for girls and women plays a key role in combating poverty.
Girl living in Ethopia. Picture: Uta Rademacher - Women make up 70% of the poor in the world.
- Globally they perform more than half of all work-hours.
- It is precisely in the countries of the South that they produce the largest part of the food.
Girls and women frequently work in the domestic sector and in unprotected areas of the informal economy. They have no legally protected employment, no medical insurance or entitlement to a pension.
Education strengthens girls
Seventy-six percent of boys attend primary schools across the world but only seventy-two percent of girls. In southern Africa only twenty percent of girls start school. Two thirds of all dropouts from school are girls. Without school education they have no chance of getting vocational training. They get married young and have children at an early age. The lack of knowledge deprives them of an important prerequisite for enabling them to make decisions about their lives. The longer mothers attend school, the lower child mortality is. Women with school education marry later, have fewer children an can look after them better.
Two girls in India. Picture: Rajiv Kumar
- Over 20% of girls suffer violence within their families
- Sexual abuse occurs in unprotected employment such as domestic service
- Over two million girls under age are used for prostitution and pornographic purposes.
- About 6,000 girls are daily circumcised in a cruel manner. To keep tradition their genitals are mutilated.
What action is Kindernothilfe taking?
If the situation for girls and women is to be improved, power structures have to be changed - women do not really need power over something, they need empowerment to do something such as:
- Determine their own actions.
- Have a greater part in decision making both in their private lives and in society.
Kindernothilfe together with their partners in the field improve the everyday situation of girls and women. And in its campaign work, Kindernothilfe works to achieve long-term improvements in the situation of girls and women.
All rights reserve. Disclaimers.