• Overview

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• Girls' Scholarships
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• Monitoring & Evaluation
• Stories from the Field

The Challenge

In countries throughout the developing world, education is not free. Families are often charged monthly or annual school fees by the local government to pay for the operation and maintenance of schools. Many families cannot afford the relatively high cost of school fees or are unable to forego the income of a working child. Currently, there are an estimated 76.8 million primary aged children (ages 6 to 11) who are out of school. Of these, 43.8 million are girls, and many more not in secondary school. (1)

Because of economics and cultural bias, families often forego the education of young girls. In Cambodia, for example, girls' enrollment in school drops precipitously as they get older. At the primary level, 91 percent of girls are enrolled in school. At the secondary level, only 19 percent are enrolled. The number drops to 7 percent at the upper secondary level (grades 9-10). (2) In Nepal, only 35 percent of women are literate. (3) In India, female literacy rates stand at 52 percent, and it is estimated that 35 million children are not attending school, of which the majority are girls. (4) (5) If a family is able to send only one child to school, which is often the case, it is generally the oldest boy. In rural areas, girls are kept behind to work in the fields or in the home. Commonly, they marry and begin having their own children by adolescence, thus continuing the cycle of poverty. In urban settings some girls leave school to sell trinkets or work in factories.

The Room to Read Room to Grow Girls' Scholarship Approach

Our Room to Grow girls' scholarship program has an immediate and direct influence on the lives of thousands of girls in the developing world. An education provides security and support to girls and enables them to make informed life decisions. In addition, a solid education is critical to improve the status of women, which provides a ripple of positive effects throughout society.

• Providing girls one extra year of education beyond the average boosts eventual wages by 10-20 percent.
• Infant mortality decreases by 8 percent for each year a woman stays in school.
• In Africa, children of mothers who receive five years of primary education are 40 percent more likely to live beyond age five.
• Family health and nutrition rise in the home of an educated woman.
• Multi-country data show educated mothers are about 50 percent more likely to immunize their children than are uneducated mothers.
• An educated woman has fewer children, so population growth is slowed in resource scarce countries.
• A 65-country analysis finds that doubling the proportion of women with a secondary education would reduce average fertility rates from 5.3 to 3.9 children per woman.

Room to Read makes a long term commitment to each girl on the program: as long as she attends classes and participates in Room to Grow activities, we will continue to fund her education through the completion of secondary school. This promise provides an incentive for her to do well in school and for the family to support her in her academic endeavors. Currently, the majority of our scholarship students range in age from 7 to 12.

To meet some of our inspiring young scholars, please download our most recent Room to Grow Girls' Scholarship Yearbook (Adobe PDF, 1.4MB).

Room to Grow program components vary depending on the country as well as the scholar's community, age, and need. The basic package includes:

• Monthly school fees, school uniforms, books, supplies and backpacks
• Academic tutoring as needed
• Developmental support through life skills trainings and field trips
• Parent meetings and workshops
• Transportation (such as a bicycle or bus fare) as needed
• Medical coverage
• Mentorship by women staff members of Room to Read

Our local program officers and partners work closely with the Room to Grow scholarship recipients and give them the support they need to be successful. Our teams work tirelessly to identify and help remove the roadblocks that the girls encounter, meeting regularly with the girls, their families, school administrators and teachers.

Along the Vietnamese and Cambodian border, sex trafficking of young girls is a tragic reality. Some families struggling to make ends meet or feed themselves are often forced to make unthinkable decisions. In dire situations, some families are left with no option but to give up their children in exchange for income to survive. The ADAPT Program (An Giang Dong Thap Alliance for the Prevention of Trafficking) is a collaborative program among several NGOs and seeks to prevent the trafficking of young women by enhancing their educational opportunities and improving their vocational options through a supportive web of services. Room to Read provides the scholarship component of this program. The ADAPT scholarship program is a mutual commitment among the child, the adults in her life, the school and Room to Read.

Our Challenge Grant Model

Prior to the start of each school year, the local Room to Read team oversees a selection process by which we choose schools and students to participate in the program. In conjunction with local school officials and our partner non-governmental organizations (NGOs), we select regions in which to operate. Generally, these are areas where we have built schools or established libraries and thus know the local communities. We enlist these contacts to recommend schools and girls who would be good candidates based on the community's need and the family's commitment to education. Each girl and her family complete a simple written application. Our program officers and local partners then conduct personal interviews with each potential candidate and her family before making the final selections.

During the school year, we monitor the attendance and performance of our scholarship students through visits with teachers, administrators and families. In addition, at the end of every school year, we evaluate each student's performance both through report cards and discussion with her teachers. This allows us to track each scholar's progress, better meet her needs and improve the program.

The girls themselves also contribute to the challenge grant by attending school and studying hard. Nguyen Huu Vinh Hanh, Program Officer in Vietnam, sums it up best: "When visiting these girls' homes, I feel that I am very lucky. I have a decent house to live in, nutritious meals to eat and an available motorbike to travel to work and the schools without any concern for tired legs. Many girls in the program are living in remote areas without electricity. They have to struggle every day, passing the river, mud and paddy fields to get to school. At night they have to study in the dark. However, it seems nothing can stand in their way in pursuit of education. They are so BRAVE. My effort to improve this program is humble in comparison with their effort to overcome barriers and gain an education."

Room to Grow Girls' Scholarship Results

In 2008, over 6,900 girls from underprivileged families in Cambodia, India, Laos, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam attended school as Room to Grow scholars. We are adding over 3,100 new scholars to the program in 2008 so that even more girls have an opportunity to receive an education and improve their lives. This figure includes 200 girls in Zambia, where we just introduced the scholarship program this year.

"When you educate a girl, you educate the next generation."

Country		Total Thru 2007	2008 (Projected)
Cambodia		956	650
India		1007	746
Laos		200	325
Nepal		764	496
South Africa		-	-
Sri Lanka		300	450
Vietnam		809	237
Zambia		-	200

How You Can Help

"Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope. It is a tool for daily life in modern society. It is a bulwark against poverty, and a building block of development.... Especially for girls and women, it is an agent of family health and nutrition. For everyone, everywhere, literacy is, along with education in general, a basic human right.... Literacy is, finally, the road to human progress and the means through which every man, woman and child can realize his or her full potential."

- Kofi Annan, UN Secretary General

The voices of these girls speak to us so many miles away. Today, they are collectively and individually changing the world. You can participate in this change by bringing education and hope to a young girl's life.

	Donate to the Room to Grow Girls' Scholarship Program - Make a donation towards a girl's education in a particular country, to the program in general, or leave it up to Room to Read to best allocate your contribution.
	Sponsor a girls' scholarship (5).
	Learn about volunteer opportunities with Room to Read.
	Sign up for our quarterly electronic newsletter to get updates on the organization, our programs, and more.

(1) UNESCO Institute for Statistics

(2) Human Development Report Statistics - Cambodia

(3) Human Development Report Statistics - Nepal

(4) Human Development Report Statistics - India

(5) World Vision Country Profile 2006

(5) Please note: It is Room to Read's philosophy not to establish a direct one to one relationship between our donors and individual students. We feel that forcing our students to maintain a relationship with a person they have never met is unfair, particularly since our students are young and not yet literate in English. Of equal importance is that our goal is to support our partner countries in addressing their own challenges. Requiring children to communicate with donors overseas may have the effect of their concluding that solutions lie beyond their own community. To provide information on our Room to Grow Girls' Scholarship Program, we publish an annual Girls' Scholarship Yearbook that details the components of the scholarship and highlights some of the key partnerships as well as some of the scholarship girls.