Why Focus on Educating Girls in Cambodia?

In many developing countries, girls must overcome numerous obstacles if they wish to attend school.  Poverty, while not the only barrier to education, is often a root cause of why millions of girls around the world cannot receive an education equal to that of the boys in their country.  In Cambodia, for example, going to school costs money.  Students and their families must pay for uniforms, supplies, snacks during the day and extra classes to ensure they have the information needed to pass the country’s rigorous standardized tests.  For many students, the regional school is very far away so they need a bicycle and, if the school is very far away, money to pay for a place to stay since girls cannot stay in a pagoda.  Many times traveling like this, or staying away from home, is not safe for young girls, so they either stay at home or are sent “away” to work for a relative.1 If money is limited and a family needs to choose between funding their son’s or daughter’s education, most often it is the son who will continue their education while the daughter goes out to find a job in order to help support the family.

Yet there are widespread benefits of educating women and girls.  Most obviously, education allows women to find better jobs and increase their income. High-earning, educated women are more likely to be self-authoring, empowered individuals. They are more likely to be respected as equals to men, and will be less susceptible to domestic or sexual abuse or the sex trade. Literate women are more likely to be vocal publicly and involved politically. They are less likely to contract HIV/AIDS. Birthrates in educated women are fewer than in non-educated mothers; sending women to school thereby reduces infant mortality rate and national populations. And educated women make improved mothers. They know how to better care for, feed, and nourish their children. They value their children’s education, as theirs has been valued. To educate a woman is to make an investment not only in her future, but also in the future of her children and her community.

CASF’s work in Cambodia, while specific to this country, is part of a global effort to end poverty and raise the living standards of literally billions of people around the world.  In the fall of 2000, 189 member nations of the United Nations signed the Millennium Declaration pledging to spare no effort to free people around the world from the “abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty.”3 According to the results of their own study:

“None of the Millennium Development Goals will likely be met unless there is significant progress in girls’ education. Educating girls is a surefire way to raise economic productivity, lower infant and maternal mortality, improve nutritional status and health, reduce poverty and wipe out HIV/AIDS and other diseases. All other development goals hinge on meeting the goals of gender parity and universal quality education.”4

Please join us in supporting these young students of ours for as long as they wish to learn.  With their level of education, these students will join in the decision making process which will decide whether or not their country has choice for its future; they will take part in create their country's destiny.

1. Kingdom of Cambodia Council for Social Development.  Cambodia National Poverty Reduction Strategy 2003-2005.

2. Herz, Barbara and Gene. Sperling.  What Works in Girls Education: Evidence and Policies from the Developing World.  Council on Foreign Relations. 2004

3. UN Millennium Development Project (http://www.unmillenniumproject.org)

4. United Nations Girls Education Initiative website (www.ungei.org)