Branches Book

BRANCHES

than she is. By fourteen will likely be married, by fifteen pregnant, and if she and her child survive childbirth, she can expect to continue living in poverty and raising her children until they are grown and repeating the cycle themselves ( Educating Girls in Africa ). This is a bleak future to say the least, and I guarantee it is not a path that you can imagine for yourself or anyone you love without feeling horrified and disgusted. However, for girls across the globe, this is not only the expected path, it is also the only path. For these girls, not going to school means that it is time to start a family, especially in countries where the men do the physical labor and the women are expected to stay home and raise their children. By remaining in school, regardless of what is being learned, a girl is often shielded from things that she would otherwise face in the outside world. If all girls in Sub-Saharan Africa and South and West Asia had access to primary education, there would be an estimated 14% fewer girls getting married before the age of fifteen. This increases to a staggering 60% decrease in child marriages if all girls in these regions had access to secondary education (“Girl Education—The Facts”). Simply by attending school, 60% fewer children will be subjected to the horrors of child marriage. This shows how powerful the protection that is offered within schools can be, just by being there. What did you learn in elementary school? The basic foundation of learning perhaps, but most refined and applicable learning comes from middle and high school. Pulling a girl out of school before secondary school is like teaching someone to fish and then never again letting them see a fishing pole. But not only are these girls leaving a place of knowledge and curiosity, they are also leaving safety. Girls outside of school are vulnerable, but in school they have a place where they can be children. In this way schools act as safe houses, even when the girls are still living at home. It provides a purpose and a plan for the day that would otherwise not exist. The longer girls stay in school, the safer they are, and the longer they are protected from the adult world while they are still children. Safety within school and the delay of adulthood is extremely beneficial for women worldwide, but for long-term success of the woman and her family, education needs to provide the potential for girls to break the cycle of poverty. There is little point in providing short term safety if school does not also provide a brighter future. Luckily, and perhaps as expected, girls who are educated are able to get better jobs than those who are not, which means receiving a much higher wage in the future. For each additional year that a girl attends secondary school, she can expect her wage in the future to increase by 15-25% (Kathy Calvin). This means that there is true, tangible evidence will improve a girl’s life in the short term and in addition provides capital moving forward that can raise her and her family out of poverty. It is incredible what

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