STEM Education for African Girls

i-GA Villages: a proposal encouraging STEM Education for African Girls

Education is at the heart of social and economic development. It has the power to stimulate economic growth, reduce poverty and inequality, and promote social cohesion, tolerance and good governance. Educated mothers are more likely to have fewer, healthier and more educated children, higher incomes, and less likely to be exposed to poor health conditions and diseases such as HIV/AIDS. Educating girls is a crucial component of building a foundation for democracy, and a prerequisite for creating and sustaining healthy, free, prosperous societies.

About one-sixth of the world's population is illiterate. One out of ten of the illiterate is an African woman. In much of Africa, girls continue to lag behind boys in basic literacy, perpetuating a cycle of inequality and poverty that impedes Africa from moving forward.
Female illiteracy remains the greatest threat to the development of Africa because it undermines our fragile democracies and the health campaigns, family planning and hygiene messages intended to stem the HIV/AIDS pandemic. It is indeed Africa’s most virulent disease.

WAAW foundation believes that girls represent an untapped resource and a hope for the future, and that female education is essential to breaking the cycle of poverty in Africa. We are committed to empowering a future generation of African women leaders through projects that promote education in science, technical, engineering, math and computing fields. The objective of this project is to inspire more African girls and women to go into fields of technology and computing by making STEM education more accessible. We are seeking grant bodies and organizations to partner with WAAW foundation in promoting these ideals.

• i-GA Villages: a proposal encouraging STEM Education for African Girls

References:
CARE Foundation: http://www.care.org
United Nations Population Fund: http://www.unfpa.org/
United States Agency for International Development: http://www.usaid.gov/locations/sub-saharan_africa/initiatives/aei.html