Egypte
Histoires vécues
One step closer to a dream
 |
| © UNICEF Egypt/2003 |
| Children attend classes in a school classroom in Egypt. |
Raweya, a 15-year-old girl from a destitute rural area in Egypt, has a dream. Some day she will be a doctor. But obstacles loom large. Poverty, as overwhelming as it can be, is just one among many.
So far, a supportive father, the Ministry of Education and UNICEF have made it possible for Raweya to pursue an education. She attends a community school, something that was unthinkable for girls in the past. Traditional roles, home confinement and early marriage have kept girls out of Egypt's classrooms. Some children were not in school because there simply were no schools to attend.
"The biggest frustration was my dream of being a doctor one day, a dream that I thought could never come true," says Raweya. "Now I am one step closer to my goal."
Working to end illiteracy
She is closer thanks to Egypt's push for universal education. The Government has worked tirelessly to end illiteracy, where currently 80 per cent of men and 68 per cent of women can read and write. There has been a particular emphasis to get girls out of the home and into the classroom.The Government of Egypt, in partnership with UNICEF, non-governmental organizations and communities, launched a community schools project in 1992. Some 500 facilitators were trained and new curricula were developed and tailored to students' needs. In less than 10 years, over 200 schools had opened throughout the area, providing free education for over 8,000 children.
The Government also encouraged women to expand their roles in the community, join school boards and committees, and involve themselves in decisions that affect their children's education. Perhaps because women answered the call, girls' enrolment is 70 per cent in these schools.
Building on this success, the project partners are expanding efforts to reach more children. Different geographical locations have been selected. Women and youth will play an even larger role on school committees. There are plans to strengthen the Ministry of Education's capacity for training and delivery and monitoring of quality education.
Barriers still exist
In spite of the heroic efforts to eradicate illiteracy, barriers still exist. The most significant is resistance to letting go of old ideas and attitudes.This is certainly the case for Raweya. While her father is supportive of her dream to become a doctor, her mother is not happy. She wants Raweya to get married soon. If that happens, Raweya will not finish her education but will remain stuck in the house. It will be as if she never went to school at all.
Raweya hopes traditions will be different in the future.
"When I have children I will make sure they all go to school and pursue their studies," she says. "No marriage will ever stop that."
For now, though, tradition is Raweya's ally. Tradition requires that the eldest daughter weds first. Thanks to her older, unmarried sister, Raweya can take still another step closer to her dream.
What's this
Digg, Del.icio.us, and Newsvine are web services enabling you to share stories on the Internet.
The blog this article feature enables you to generate a short summary of this article, ready to be pasted in a blog post.
Digg and Newsvine are social news sites, where the top news stories are selected not by an editor but by its collective users. Explore Digg and Newsvine for yourself.
Del.icio.us is a social bookmarking website where you can tag and share your favourite web pages, rather than bookmarking them in the traditional way inside your web browser. Try out Del.icio.us
Blog this article
Post this article to your blog. The story's headline, main picture and summary will be displayed on your page as in the preview below.
Writing the rest of the blog post will be up to you!
Click in the area below, then copy the code and paste it in your blog page:
Preview :
Related links
