The Issue
The issue
In northeastern Tanzania, pastoralist communities often face discrimination, lack access to basic services and are underrepresented in policy and decision making spaces. Schools are often far distances away and lack adequate infrastructure , trained teachers or clear policies to protect girls. Girls can face unique barriers to education due to responsibilities including livestock keeping and traditional attitudes from parents who believe that girls attending school violates their culture.
Grace’s approach
Policy Reform, Community Advocacy, ResearchGrace is a Maasai pastoralist woman working as the Project Coordinator for the Pastoral Women's Council (PWC), an organisation working to empower women and girls in northern Tanzania to get the education they need to become self-reliant and take control of their own future. In her role, Grace works with girls, school administrators and parents to coordinate the organisation’s climate adaptation projects.
With their Malala Fund grant, Grace and the PWC team will work to increase enrolment, retention and completion rates of girls in five secondary schools by challenging social norms and pushing for a safer, more inclusive, quality education. To accomplish this, they will work with girls to raise community awareness about the importance of girls’ education using radio, SMS and traditional Maasai art forms. They will conduct school assessments to draft policy recommendations on how leaders can improve safe, inclusive, quality learning and performance for pastoralist girls. They will also train teachers and provide up to 2,000 girls with access to counselling, psycho-social support and lessons on life skills and gender equality.
More about Grace
There are 2 other Education Champions working in Tanzania.
