NEWS & PRESS RELEASES

Women, an already vulnerable population, will face an increasing number of challenges as they fall victims to the negative effects of the financial crisis. Females, who are frequently locked into low-paid jobs or unemployment and who are illiterate because of the lack of access to education, are directly hit by the massive job slashes, the wage decrease, the price rise… which are the direct consequences of the economic crisis. The downturn has had a major impact on the well-being and health of women as well as that of their families and children. Were politicians not to implement actions and policies to help them face the situation, women would be doomed to lose the few social and economic advantages they have acquired in the past years, including the resort to microcredits of which they are the main beneficiaries, and education.

 

“Although the scope of the crisis is still hard to assess, women and young girls in developed and developing countries will be seriously affected by the rise in unemployment, the rising household and work tasks, the wage decrease and the rising domestic violence”, explains the UN.   Investing in education to help women get out of the crisisEach additional year of study increases the GDP per capita by 4% to 6%, the UNESCO reminds. Thanks to education, the fate of women worldwide has improved over the past ten years and is still likely to improve for everybody’s sake. “Women should not be seen as victims, they can also be actors for change. Acknowledging them as economic actors and investing in females in such a troubled economic period appears as a key means to rebuild the world economies”, explains Mayra Buvinic, World Bank Director for Gender and Development . Aide et Action which subscribes to this theory, is mobilized to develop women’s economic growth, on top of fighting female poverty. “Our actions must be targeted, we need to find the most profitable development niches for women”, explains Claire Calsoci, Managing Director Aide et Action International.   

 

To meet that goal and support education, several programmes have been developed by the NGO, notably in Sub-Saharan Africa, to increase the female school attendance rate. In Niger, Aide et Action has initiated a project to build schools, childcares, canteens and dormitories for girls. The association, in partnership with the Agence Française de Développement (AFD  or French Development Agency) has also developed literacy projects. Until now, 750 girls in the Filingué department (Niger) have benefited from this programme. The gap between the male and female school attendance rates – in 2006, the school attendance rate for girls rose to 37%, against 65% for boys – has been inverted.

 

The girls’ school attendance rate in 2007 increased to 54%.   In the Dominican Republic, girls are in charge of household tasks and children, which prevent them from attending school. They transmit this pattern to their children and get trapped in a vicious circle. Since November 2009, Aide et Action and the Dominican Republic Orange Foundation have launched the “Casita Orange” project, which tackles education for girls. The project includes the construction of a community kingergarten to take care of all children while girls and young mothers (about 300 ones) go back to school.   On March 8th, the Women’s’ International day, Aide et Action reiterates its commitment to ensuring that women and girls have access to education. The association pledges to further develop its actions so that women are better equipped to change the world.