Educating Girls – compassionbb

Compassion Beyond Borders educates more girls in India than in any other country due to its immense population, its extensive poverty, the oppression of its caste system, its pervasive gender discrimination, and the oppression of its indigenous peoples. All of CBB’s projects in India are with these disadvantaged girls, who are deeply impoverished. According to the latest government statistics, 40% of the Indian people still live in poverty, a reality that has not changed in spite of India’s current economic growth.

The upward spiral

With an education, girls and women:

are less likely to be poor
have fewer children
have healthier children
have better educated children
are less likely to contract HIV/AIDS
are less likely to be victims of sexual exploitation
are less likely to die in childbirth
have children far less likely to suffer from malnutrition
have greatly reduced rates of infant and child mortality in their families
are less subject to physical and other abuse by their husbands
raise agricultural productivity in peasant families
are able to participate in the political, social and economic development of their community
live more productive and fulfilling lives

Educating girls is more effective in reducing population growth than family planning programs. For every three years of schooling a mother has received, she gives birth to one less child.

Virtually every measure of social, political and economic progress is enhanced by the education of girls, who go on to mother a more productive, less poverty-stricken generation. The education of girls creates an upward spiral that lasts beyond their lifetime, transforming their lives by breaking the cycle of poverty for their families.

Poor and vulnerable girls

Poverty in the developing world means living on less than $1.90 a day, with 70% of the poor being women and girls. A poor girl may receive little or no education and isn’t taught the skills to earn an income. She doesn’t learn about sanitation, nutrition and health care which would prevent 90% of her family’s illness when she becomes a mother.

Educated mothers have fewer, healthier and better educated children, which reduces their family’s poverty. When these children begin their families they also have fewer , healthier and better educated children. Each generation moves further out of poverty, reducing infant and maternal mortality and increasing life expectancy for the entire family. The benefits of educating a girl continue generation after generation, beyond her lifetime.

Dr. San-Yee So Memorial Nursing Fund

Dr. San-Yee So was a firm believer in education who used to say that no person or government could ever take away our knowledge. She was born in China and went through the Japanese invasion and then the Communist take over of that country.

Fortunately, she was able to complete her medical education and practiced as a radiologist in Hong Kong for nearly 40 years. she was able to support the college education of all four of her children (two with Ph.D.’s), and also the university education of six children of her friends.

Jackline, shown here, lost her mother and her means of support just after entering nursing school at the Meru Medical Training College. With a scholarship from CBB, Jackline completed her nursing studies and is now working at a government medical center. CBB supports the nursing education of 24 girls in India, Kenya and Guatemala.

Nurses’ aide training

CBB funds a one-year residential nurses’ aide training program for out-of-school tribal girls in the state of Jharkhand, India. The girls also learn English and how to use a computer. When their training is completed, the girls take a government examination that certifies them as a Health Assistant. The program then finds employment for the girls in local hospitals.

The training and subsequent employment transforms a girl’s life from being uneducated like most girls in her community to being the only person in her family with full-time employment. This program is administered by Amar Jyoti, a project of the Missionary Sisters of the Queen of the Apostles.