While discussing support for the young monks and the needy monasteries one of our donors asked the question - what about education for the girls in Bhutan. This has resulted in a separate project by Namgay's wife and the creation of a program named "Girls Too." The following is a report that describes the initial effort to assist the education of six girls in a small village region of the Punakha and Wangdi communities.

Inspired and encouraged by GIA I took two weeks off in September and a weekend in November to visit two villages in the Punakha and Wangdi communities. My goal was to identify girl education needs, to do a study/pre search on what sort of schooling the girl children were offered and what were the main reasons for the high drop out of girl children from school especially from the rural communities although education in Bhutan is free and every girl or boy was eligible for education.

The schools are near the mortar road. It takes about 3 hours driving from Thimphu to get to the girl's school. It takes four hours walk to get to the village from the school. Finally it takes about an hour and half to get to the individual houses of our girls.

I learnt that girl children drop out owing to:
Social and Cultural Obligations
Some girls feel it is more important to be home with their aging parents than in the school. A few are the only child born to their parents and if they did not return home to their parents the land her parents own would have turned bare and the family house ruined.

Family Reasons
Girls drop out of school to get married usually to rural extension government workers and get busy with child bearing and rearing.

The family does not have the money to educate all the children and the first choice goes to the boys in the family. Girls are kept home to help their mother with raising children, carrying out household tasks and making money for the family outside the formal economic sector.

Academic Reasons
Does not like school and has learning problems.

Click here to read about when the girls were invited to Thimphu and provided with the inital materials to assist them with their education..

Read a report in 2010 following the girls first year.

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On behalf of all of us associated with Chorten Nebu Monastic School and the Shari Pankha Monastic School- focused on the little monk boys of the community- We thank our donors for your generous and continuing support.

We also appreciate your concern to spread out the projects beyond just the monastery to reach out to benefit girl education in our communities.

What Can We do to help?
I learnt a lot during my trips to the villages. I experienced and saw for myself how difficult life in the rural village was. It was not easy for me to identify the families/girls that could benefit from our program. I felt that nearly every one of the children both boys and girls needed all the help and assistance that they could get.

These four girls were selected by the head master as being the ones that will benefit most from the Girls Too funding...

I dropped by one of the Community Schools and a Middle Secondary School and had the principal identify the students since I thought he would best know his students and their families and would be most fair. This way we ensure that the funding which is available actually reaches those most in need and that those most in need are aware of their rights to this funding.

Four girl students who were well behaved, interested in school and extra curricular activities and brought good grades but were at the risk of dropping out of school owing to family reasons

And two girl children who only had a single parent, keen learners but again were at the risk of dropping school because the parent was not able to meet the schooling expenses limited to school uniforms, school books, beddings & toiletries, travel expenses and boarding fees.

I am planning to call the girls to Thimphu and spend a day shopping for school uniforms and necessities as outlined in the plan & budget towards the end of February. This way I can teach them the importance of budgeting, buying only what is important and necessary and keeping account of expenses so that from 2010 they will know how the system works. I would also like to show them around Thimphu, invite them to lunch at my home, introduce them to my children and also take the girls to visit places in Thimphu.

Dorji 11/30/2008

Tax deducible donations to the Girls Too Project can be made by check payable to "Generosity in Action" and mailed to:
Philanthropic Ventures Foundation
1222 Preservation Park Way
Oakland, CA 94612-1201

Be sure to indicate that the donation is for
the Girls Too Project.

Donate via the internet...

Note: Once at PVF/Donate page, locate the section "Designated Funds" - click the button for "Generosity in Action" - and specifiy the Girls Too in the text box."
Note that there is a 3% administrative fee for internet transactions

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