women education

We provide seminars and on going training in issues prioritized by women such as health and hygiene, budgeting, family planning, agriculture, legal rights and awareness because education is the first step to women’s economic, social and political empowerment. As the following extract from the “World Development Report”, 1993 so truly puts it. “Education greatly strengthens women’s ability to perform their vital role in creating healthy households. It increases their ability to benefit from health information and to make good use of health services; it increases their access to income and enables them to live healthier lives. It is not surprising, therefore, that a child’s health is affected more by the mother’s schooling than by the father’s schooling”.

What kind of education?

• Education and information on issues women feel ignorant about such as their rights in law and on how to claim them.
• Education in areas women feel they need to progress in, such as hygiene and family planning, so that they are better able to look after themselves and their family.
• Education in self-awareness so that women can begin to feel part of the community of women worldwide.
• Education in new skills so that women can be more economically productive.

Providing education for women is a challenging task

Over 600 women have benefited from at least one of our organised workshops and we are presently working on a new round, knowing that perhaps most of the benefits will have been lost within weeks. Yes, you read right; we have a problem, but also a solution.

Many of the workshops are conducted outside or in grotty, stuffy rooms or in classrooms during holidays, but somehow this is not the main problem. The real issue is that a lot of our women can’t read or have forgotten as they never had a chance to practice, so giving notes to take away is pointless for most of them; certainly for those who would benefit most. Furthermore, it can be a lot to take in when you are not used to learn this way or a lot to remember if you can’t put any of it in practice in the immediate future. So the problem is one of sustainability. How to help a woman retain, practice, review, refer back.

Hence our determination to build a training centre where information will always be available, long after a particular workshop was delivered; where lessons can be broken into more memorable chunks; where clarification can be sought again and again and where women can learn at their own speed and time. A permanent learning place, the solution to our problem and the only solution for turning every learning experience into a truly beneficial one.