CAMPAIGN: Education for Girls and Women now!

Out of the 69 million children that are deprived of their right to education globally, 54% are girls. From 2 – 8 May, the Global Action Week is arranged to place focus on the challenges girls are faced in accessing education.

When having enrolled in school, girls are less likely to complete primary education, since poverty, traditions and lack of protection contributes to girls dropping out. Girls also have significantly less chance of progressing to secondary school in many parts of the world.

The Global Campaign for Education aims to highlight factors that exclude girls from accessing education and hold governments accountable for eradicating gender based discrimination. There has been a notable increase in the number of girls enrolled in primary school but more must be done to retain those numbers.

"There is no tool for development more effective than the education of girls" (Kofi Annan, former UN Secretary General)

NRC and girls education
Girls and women are under-represented in education in many of the countries where NRC works. NRC has initiated a number of activities to ensure that girls and young women are able to access, and complete, education:

• Adopted an equal enrolment policy, to ensure that both girls and boys are given access to NRCs education programs.
• Promote recruitment and training of female teachers, to foster a protective learning environment for girls and promote female role models.
• In Liberia, NRC trains teachers and community education committees on Gender-Based Violence (GBV) prevention and has GBV focal points in all youth learning centres.
• In Somalia, NRC provides girls with locally appropriate, reusable sanitary kits, including sanitary napkins and soap to enable girls access school during their menstrual cycle.
• In NRC's youth learning centres kindergartens are set up, where young mothers place their children while they are attending school. Since the kindergarten is at the learning centre, mothers can easily leave class to breastfeed or take care of their children.

Join NRC in supporting girls' education by signing up to the Global Campaign for Education's call on world leaders to ensure that all women and girls get the right to a safe, quality and free education. To sign, visit to Global Action Week webpage click here.