GEI announces new project in Pakistan and new partner NGO, Bedari

Meet Rifat

At just 12 years old, Rifat knows the value of education. While carrying firewood and working in the fields, she regularly watches her two brothers trek off to secondary school in the neighboring village.
After their father died when she was just six, the family needed more laborers. Because a boy’s education is valued more highly and money is tight, Rifat is unable to continue her studies, despite being a bright student. Your donation means that Rifat will be able to attend secondary school. With an education, Rifat will be more likely to marry later, have fewer and healthier children, contribute economically to her family and village, and potentially break the cycle of poverty.

How you can help Rifat and other girls like her:
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Girls Education International (GEI) is excited to announce the implementation of a new educational project in Pakistan. After three long years of stalled efforts due to political chaos in the region, we have finally vetted and are partnering with the Pakistani-based womens’ rights organization, Bedari ( www.bedari.org ). We will support a scholarship model for girls’ education that Bedari developed, to be implemented in the remote village of Laphi.

Laphi, a town of 3,500 located in the northern mountains of the Salt Range in the Punjab province, does not have a secondary school. Though one lies just five miles away in a neighboring village, most Laphi villagers can’t afford to pay for the travel costs and school fees for both their girl and boy children. And because a girls’ education is undervalued, only boys typically attend school. Thus, most of the village women are married in their late teens, illiterate, and have little to no education beyond primary school.

Girls Education International is partnering with Bedari to provide many of Laphi’s girls with the opportunity to attend secondary school. With a group of village volunteers and elders overseeing the project, administrative support from Bedari, and financial support from GEI, these girls will have the opportunity to better their lives and improve the health and economies of their communities. As former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan stated: "There is no tool for development more effective than the education of girls. No other policy is as likely to raise economic productivity, lower infant and maternal mortality, improve nutrition, and promote health ...”

Please support Girls Education International’s goal of raising $5,000 by the end of 2009 to fund our new Pakistani program as well as to support our continued efforts in Liberia and Nepal. Your generous donation means that one child like Rifat (see sidebar) can escape the cycle of poverty and help uplift her entire community.

We, and the girls you help educate, thank you for supporting our efforts to educate young women around the world.

Warmly,
Lizzy Scully & Heidi Wirtz
Founders of Girls Education International


PS. Please mail your donation, payable to Girls Education International:
Girls Education International
PO Box 853
Lyons, CO 80540

Or if you would like to donate online with your credit card, please click:

Girls Education International is an official 501(c)3 tax-free, nonprofit organization

How your donation helps change the life of a girl:
• $250 sends a Liberian girl to college for one year
• $200 sends a Laphi girl to secondary school for one year
• $50 sends a Liberian girl to school for one semester
• Other amount. All donations are greatly appreciated!