Tomorrow is Women’s Equity Day! All across the world, the fight for women's equality is still incredibly important! It is something that is near to the heart of Kinship United, as we believe that all people, women and men of all nationalities, are made in the image of God.
In many of the countries where our Kinships are located, it’s hard to be a woman. One of the main issues that many women face is a lack of education. And without an education, women have a whole bunch of other problems to deal with.
So what difference can education really make? A pretty big one. If every girl in lower to middle income countries finished primary school, the equivalent of our elementary school, it would actually save hundreds of thousands of lives.
Yep. You read that right. The under-5 mortality rate would fall by 15%, and there would be 66% fewer maternal deaths. And in sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia the number of girls getting married by the age of 15 would drop by 14%. Educating girls saves lives.
Nazziwa’s Story
16 year old Nazziwa has loved education her whole life. It’s always been her dream to study to become a nurse. But tragically, Nazziwa has lived a life of hardship, one that has kept her from studying as much as she wanted.
For years, Nazziwa was raised by a woman who called herself Nazziwa’s mother. However, this mother was cruel to her, and treated her differently than her siblings. One day, Nazziwa asked this woman if she was really Nazziwa’s mother. The woman flew into a rage at Nazziwa, telling her the truth, that she was not really her mother, and that she had always hated Nazziwa.
When Nazziwa’s father came home that night, her stepmother accused Nazziwa of being disrespectful and rebellious. He too became angry with Nazziwa, and beat her. He told her that he wouldn’t pay the school fees of a disrespectful girl, and he kicked her out of their house.
Nazziwa hasn’t gone home since. And she hasn't seen her father for 3 years. And she never went back to school.
She is angry at the world and at her father for what happened. And she still desperately wishes she could keep studying. The hardship of Nazziwa’s life has kept her out of school, but it hasn’t made her forget how much she wanted to become a nurse. She knows that if she can’t finish school, that dream will never come true.
And with every day that passes, Nazziwa believes that her dream of finishing school gets farther and farther away.
The world is full of stories like Nazziwa’s. So many girls are kept from their educations. But you have the power to help change these stories.
