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For many girls and young women in the world, access to education is underpinned by pervasive gender inequality. Girls face specific, additional adversity; they are at increased risk of sexual exploitation, child labour, forced marriage, gender-based violence and trafficking, along with unequal domestic burdens, all of which present barriers to learning. Girls also struggle to access social care and health infrastructures essential to preventing young pregnancy, and in many countries, adolescent mothers are banned from attending school, and so denied the right to education.

In Zimbabwe, one in five secondary school-aged girls do not attend school, and half of school-aged young people with disabilities have no access to education. As many as 600,000 children in Zimbabwe are living with some form of disability and girls with disabilities are disproportionately excluded from education compared to their male counterparts.

Supporting Adolescent Girls’ Education

Involving girls and young women and finding authentic ways to represent their hopes for the future has been a key driver in the learning design and implementation of the Supporting Adolescent Girls’ Education (SAGE) programme in Zimbabwe – a five-year programme funded by UK aid through the Girls’ Education Challenge, now in its final year.

How your support can make a difference

SAGE, which began in 2018, seeks to address the barriers in accessing education faced by girls in Zimbabwe by offering an accelerated non-formal literacy and numeracy skills programme for over 13,200 marginalised adolescent girls (aged 10-19). They have either never been to or have dropped out of school, and include girls with disabilities, young mothers, those who are already married, girls from the Apostolic community, girls from minority ethnic communities, and girls engaged in labour. As well as focusing on girls’ educational development, the programme supports the development of girls’ self-efficacy and life skills. On completion of the programme, graduates transition onto clear pathways to further training, income generation, or are supported to return to education.

By making a gift today towards SAGE, your support will impact generations of learners in Zimbabwe, uplifting whole communities and inspiring young girls to reimagine their futures.  

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