Updated Our Projects Page

We are finally updating the "Our Projects" page on our Girls Ed Web site. I'm not sure when the web guy will be able to get it up and running, and so I'm posting it here for all to see.

Our Projects:

Bong and Margibi counties, Liberia
We are providing 47 girls in the mountainous regions of Liberia, in Bong and Margibi counties, with education scholarships for the 2008/2009 schoolyear. We are working with the Liberian NGO Common Ground Society and its program director Emily Sherman-Davis. The total cost of providing them with scholarships is $3,000. Plus, we are raising an additional $1,500 in order to pay Emily to regularly monitor the progress of the girls. The $1,500 includes transportation, lodging and food costs for Emily to travel twice per year and also for her to find and communicate with the awardees of the scholarship.

We plan on making this a long-term project, which means we will need to raise around $4,500 each year. We also hope to expand the program to eventually include 100 or more girls.

For more information or to see photos of the girls and the Liberian schools, visit the Girls Education International blog.

Kathmandu, Nepal
We are in our fourth year of providing two young girls, Nisa and Sonam, with $100 per girl education scholarships to attend school in Kathmandu. We are planning on sending them to a better school in 2009, where they can learn English. For more information or to see photos of the girls, visit the GEI blog.

Future projects
*These are projects that we continue to work on, but that we are unable to move forward on at this time because we lack funds and/or the infrastructure necessary for implementation.

Pakistan:
Since its inception, GEI has sought to support the education of girls in the northern Pakistan region of Baltistan. As demonstrated daily in the news, working in Pakistan poses complex and dynamic challenges, particularly for US-based organizations. As a result, GEI has been exploring partnership opportunities with Pakistani organizations that specialize in improving primary education, particularly in the northern region, and we have identified a couple of excellent candidates. Once selected, GEI will rely on our local partner to evaluate communities for education improvement projects, oversee the implementation of such projects--including ensuring that they meet local and federal education criteria and standards and cultural norms, and provide an accessible advisor for community leaders and teachers. Given our long-held hope of improving educational opportunities for girls in the village of Khane in Baltistan, GEI intends to begin work with its local partner organization with an assessment of the feasibility of a project in Khane, which we hope to complete by mid-2009. For updates on this, please regularly check for updates on our blog.

Mustang Region of Nepal
We would like to implement an education scholarship for the 20 girls who reside in the Child Labor Rescue Program house in Pokhara, in the Mustang Region of Nepal. The program is administered by Empowering Women of Nepal. The total cost of the program is US $4,700 ($235 per child).

We hope to start running Trek4Good programs through The Mountain Fund in order to raise funds for this scholarship program. Through this Trek4Good, aspiring trekkers will have the opportunity to travel to the Mustang Region of Nepal to trek around Annapurna and visit with the children at the Child Labor Rescue Program home. Funds raised from this trip will go directly to the education of these girls. For more information on the trek and this project, please visit TMF’s website or the GEI blog.

Emily Sherman-Davis' second report on Liberia

This is Emily Sherman Davis’ second report

I made my first trip to Kakata, Margibi County on August 6, 2008, and returned to Monrovia on the evening of that same day . I also traveled to Bong County on August 14, 2008, where I spent two days. The purpose of both trips was to pay the fees of beneficiaries of the GEI/CGS Girls’ Scholarship.

We received the amount of US$1500.00 from GEI to pay the fees for the students who are on the scholarship. The prevailing rate is 60 LD to 1 US$ bring the total amount to LD 90,000.00 after the exchange was done.

I was not able to take pictures because the students are yet to start school in September. The month of August is strictly for registration and admission. We intend to take individual pictures of the students at their schools and in their uniforms when we visit during our first assessment.

We want to thank the GEI for the contributions it is making towards ensuring that girls can get education in Liberia

Very important Observation

During our calculations I observed that we had earlier told the GEI that the beneficiaries were only 42. This information was posted on the GEI blog. However the report sent for the selection had 47 (that is if you count the number against the selected schools). Unfortunately, neither institutions made that observation.

I am pleased to inform you that the beneficiaries are 47 as stated in the financial reports for payment:

St. Martins (Bong County) 10 students
Methodist (Bong County) 11 students
Dekegar ( Margibi County) 11 students
E. J. Yancy (Margibi County) 10 students
St. Christopher (Margibi County) 5 students

Total Beneficiaries 47 students

I think it is very important to make this clarification.

Sincerely yours
Emily Sherman-Davi
Project Coordinator – GEI/CGS Scholarship Fund
Program Director - CGS

Heidi Wirtz an Inspiring Soles semifinalist

We recently discovered that Heidi was voted as one of Outside Mag and Croc's Inspiring Soles, which means she gets $5,000 that she can donate to her favorite charity. This will pay for our Liberia program through spring of 2010! This is fantastic news.

On another bright note, we have a really great potential partner to work with in Pakistan, so perhaps we will finally be able to get our Khane project going next year.

Finally, we are having a fundraiser in early October. It will be at the B-Side restaurant. I'll post some more news on that in a bit.
-Lizzy