UNITE, Ashe’ Collection and all of our Global Girls UNITE youth groups focus on the education and empowerment of girls and women throughout Tanzania and East Africa. For insights and information about the state of women and girls in Africa, we invite you to explore the work of Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl Wudunn, authors of Half the Sky, and watch The Girl Effect.
The best way to fight povery and extremism is to educate and empower women and girls.
– Half the Sky Movement
Articles of interest:
By 2015, females will make up 64% of the world’s illiterate (adult) population. (PDF)
Only 30% of girls in the world are enrolled in secondary school. (PDF)
One in seven girls in developing countries is married off before age 15. (article #1, article #2)
45 percent of Tanzania’s population is under the age of 15, versus 20 percent in the United States. (Source: www.globalhealthfacts.org)
Tanzania has one of the highest adolescent pregnancy rates in the world, which affects girls’ health, education, and future employment.
One in five Tanzanian girls has no education at all. [Source: United Nations, Tanzania, "Delivering as One" (July 2010)]
An extra year of primary school boosts girls’ eventual wages 10-20% while an extra year of secondary school: 15 to 25% (Source: Girls Foundation of Tanzania)
More than half (54%) of all rapes of females happen before age 18. (PDF)
Children as young as age 11 are forced to work as prostitutes. Some estimates have as many as 1.2 million children being trafficked every year. (article)
Pregnancy is the world’s leading cause of death for girls 15 to 19 years old. In Sub-Saharan Africa a woman has a 1 in 3 chance of dying in child birth compared to a risk of risk is 1 in 4,085 in industrialized countries. (Source: Girls Foundation of Tanzania)
Women and girls reinvest 90% of their income into their families while men only reinvest 30-40%. (Source: Girls Foundation of Tanzania)
