Monday

Send your Girl Child to school

Moving around rural Ghana, I often saw posters that read: "send your girl child to school". I also saw kids at Adenkrebi, under the direction of their teacher, perform a skit in which a girl wanted to go to school but her "father" (fellow student role playing) wouldn't let her. At the end, two male students teamed up, picked the child playing the father up off his feet, and carried him out the door announcing "we are going to arrest you because you will not let her go to school!" It was pretty classic.

I met a man working for an NGO that helps girls.  A lot of girls cannot learn like the boys because after school they have to go home and help with the cooking and cleaning, and by night it is too dark to do their studying.  Also, a lot of girls, are "afraid to be discovered" during certain times of the month at school because they don't have the hygiene products.  If they have to cross a stream or river, they won't go, because traditionally they are told they will contaminate it.  So a lot of girls don't go to school as much as the boys.  He is working on awareness there and it is fascinating.

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