‘Girl
Child’ is a small registered charity that aims to provide
girls in Zambia with access to good quality education. As soon as
Girl Child’s founder Alice Coles started her VSO placement
at an orphanage in Zambia in October 2003, it soon became clear
that government schools were not able to provide a good quality
education, nor work with each child individually, especially not
with 70 in a class. After leaving Zambia in 2005, Alice and Jamie
set up Girl Child to help support young, vulnerable girls by sponsoring
their education on a long-term basis.
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Why we do what we do
Girls
in Zambia are six times more likely to contract HIV than boys. Child mortality
is a reality for many during childbirth and in the first five years of
their children’s lives. Women are dependent on their husbands for
financial support to provide for both children and themselves and so many
women must put up with being treated badly. Women in Zambia do not have
many opportunities and those that they do have they must fight for. Access
to education is very important in changing this. An educated woman is
more likely to take her child to a clinic than a non-educated one. She
is less likely to contract HIV and will be more likely to be able to support
herself and her family.
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How we do it
Girl
Child supports three programmes of education in Zambia. These are:.
Sponsorship Programme
Continuing the success of our individual sponsorship programme we now
have 14 girls sponsored into school, Going forward we are looking to
place secondary school girls at another school in Lusaka. You can read
more about the individual girls we are sponsoring in 'The Girls' section
of this website.
Communty Programme
Set up in 2008, the community programme came about following the field
trip we made to a developing community school two hours east of Lusaka
in the summer of 2007. It's such a wonderful project with huge potential,
and we felt that we could make a contribution to help realise the dream
the many volunteeres working at the school are working towards. Read
more about how we've helped in 'Community Programme' section of this
website.
Training Programme
Finally, we have also decided to set up post-education training fund
for any girls who have completed their studies but are not in a position
to get work or find themselves with little or no support. This new scheme
has now been finalised and we are now supporting one young woman through
the fund. Read more about the training fund programme in 'Training Programme'
section of this website.