Girls Education — the story of our mission & the invaluable “gift of education”
As educated women or men, having had the opportunity to attend different schools, and graduate with success, we contribute in many ways to the world, and the society. We solve problems, we face challenges, and find solutions, cure diseases, and we share our wisdom, and knowledge with others. We become well positioned to earn a living, spend money, save money, and transfer wealth for our our children, and others whom we care. We develop and build our strengths, have confidence, make decisions about our kids, our health, and happiness. We take risks, because we have different opportunities, and we choose…
What is the reality like for a rural girl living in Turkey, along with two or three other siblings born into an uneducated family ? Do they go to school? Do they get the education privilege or priority over boys? According to the UNESCO ISCED data — Chart 1: 2 out of every 10 girls don’t have any schooling, or complete primary school. And another 3 or 4 complete primary level education which gets them to ages 12 or 13 the most. What happens to these girls afterwards? They run errands at home and outside, look after their younger siblings, or cook, wash, what their moms do or used to do when they were the same age. And luckily in this scene, 1 additional girl completes secondary level middle school education, and 1 completes high school.
Chart 1: Education Attainment Levels in Females — % of Total (Aged 25 & Older)
These girls can do so much errands as they eventually become a burden for their families. Even with good intentions, most become forced to marry and become child brides between the ages of 13–18. Most against their will, as the families have no means to afford this extra “headcount” to continue education. In fact, you might well inquire if they ever dream about going to school?
These stats are a frightening facts of Turkish society especially living in the rural areas. Compared to Canada or US, where higher education attainment is the highest, Turkey’s education gap or I would say wound is much more severe and significant. More than half the females have a college degree in Canada, and similarly close to 40% of the girls in US have a higher education degree (including tertiary/community college degree). In Turkey , only 1 out of 10 women has a college degree and does belong to the first paragraph way of life & my describing. I would like to overwrite this table badly, the color scheme and everything, but the facts would remain. This gap is the main barrier of a developing nation trying to advance in many fronts politically, socially, culturally. And the worst of all, the realities, values, preferences, vary so dramatically among these educational segments, they can loose the connection within, understanding and empathy towards each other.
As Bridge to Turkiye Fund, volunteers, and community leaders we take this opportunity gap as a mission, and work to provide financial and social support to many underprivileged girls around the clock. Started in 2004 with just 4 girls, BTF supported a total of 1,172 girls in empowerment scholarships in the last 10+ years. We provide micro-scholarships for their education, remove the burden on their families easing affordability. While we can’t fulfill all the population education gap, we can grow every year by improving our reach, increasing our united voice for action among our friends & communities to further invest in this cause. We believe the single best gift we can provide as privileged & educated people, as a way of “paying back” is to pass our luck and offer “the gift of education” to those underprivileged children. We fundraise for this fundamental need every year in many different ways and places. In 2016, we are able to support a total of 320 girls (close to $172,000 in total investment funds) and we are truly thankful for all our donors in supporting girls education.
Multi-generational impact: There is much higher return on this giving beyond the individual impact we make. We know investing in girls is the most effective way to eradicate ignorance, delay fertility, improve health outcomes and ultimately improve economic results as it impacts multiple generations further down. We call this “breaking the generational cycle”. There are 2 true scenarios below with different outcomes. Scenario 1, centers around the status-quo: The girl doesn’t continue school (beyond primary level education), she gets married at a child age, gives birth to other girls, and her daughters lives in the same vicious circle; nobody and no cause creates a disruption. In scenario 2 depicted below, an underprivileged girl gets the gift of education=> she completes high school and goes to college=>makes her own decisions, supports herself, earns a living. She marries by her will much later on, sets the education standard for her daughters to be and does expect more and better out of them. As you can see below, this initial investment spans multiple generations and becomes self-sustaining at some point, we do lengthen the fertility cycle and therefore control population growth.
There are many eligible bright girls who want to continue education or get into college, but unfortunately denied this opportunity due to limited scholarship funds. Join our empowerment family today. If you have an opportunity to give back, please consider “empowering a girl”. She will forever be grateful for this gift and be able to achieve her dreams against all odds. That girl will soon become a teacher, a doctor, scientist or an engineer. She will multiply her investment and pay back in a big way.
One girl at a time, one scholarship at a time with your help as you are the conduit for this change.
