Women learners at accelerated schooling centres in western Mali receive USAID kits
Bamako, Mali (PANA) - The USAID-Mali project, entitled "Leadership and Empowerment of Girls through Education," just handed out school kits, bicycles, sewing machines and birth certificates to female learners at the Accelerated Schooling Centers (CSA) of the Center for Pedagogical Animation (CAP) in Kéniéba, in the Kayes region of western Mali, PANA learned Saturday from an official source.
The kits aims to encourage parents to enrol their children, especially girls, in the CSA, to encourage vulnerable teenage girls to continue their studies despite the distances.
These materials are also intended for other girls in the age group between 10 and 14 years to enrol and stay in the CSA.
As for the indirect targets, they are all those who will receive awareness-raising messages, information on the importance of schooling and keeping girls in school.
In order to increase the population's income, Mali has developed national guidelines and strategies for the schooling of girls and the fight against gender-based violence with the support of its partners.
It is in this perspective that USAID, an American financing institution, in its fight for schooling in general and that of girls in particular, has financed this project to the tune of US$23.9 million, or 13.145 billion CFA francs, for a period of three years which could be extended for two additional years.
The project plans to reach 57,707 girls in the age group between 10 and 18 years old, spread among 272 schools in seven pedagogical activity centres in certain localities in the regions of Kayes and Mopti (centre).
Its main objective is to help reduce the main barriers for adolescent girls to access quality education, improve the safety of adolescent girls in schools and their communities, and increase knowledge and adoption of positive health behaviours among adolescent girls.
-0- PANA GT/BEH/MTA/VAO 1March2020
