SERVICE TO THE COMMUNITY

‘Women of Valor fellowship’ is an initiative of the Rector as a fundraising project for the most disadvantaged young women. ‘Women of Valor fellowship’, in reference to the brave woman of Proverbs 31: 10–31, targets destitute young women in the region.

Woman of Valor, a personification of wisdom. This denomination is appropriate for these young women both in their upstream and downstream life experiences. They were brave to finish school in harsh conditions, brave to endure the hard times until this day, brave not to take unnecessary and risky shortcuts, they will be even more so if they are supported.

This initiative was thought to light a candle in the dark times that young women in this region face to continue their education. Indeed, the government policy of free basic education for all initiated in 2005 has enabled many girls to register.

Today, sixteen years later, nothing like free university education for the most disadvantaged is envisaged. Government merit-based scholarship loans for boys and girls have hidden costs for girls. Many young rural women find it difficult to come to cities where most of them have no relatives and the majority of these are subsequently exposed to unwanted pregnancies and early marriages.

Although the Education for All (EFA) policy has raised the standards, today daring the university education is for the majority a luxury. Unfortunately, having spent 12 years at the school bench and not being able to have access to university education is a great frustration for young women, the latter are socially stigmatized as having wasted their time in studies while others were busy developing skills in agriculture. They find themselves over the age of marriage and in the end neither their low level of education nor their poor farming skills allow them to earn a living.