How Is GFA World Promoting Girls’ Education?

GFA World is promoting girls’ education through their child sponsorship program. This program helps thousands of girls and boys through community-wide solutions like opportunities for education, medical care, protection against malnutrition, clean water and more.


GFA World’s Child Sponsorship Program helped Sumana and her family.1

Sumana is one of the oldest girls in her family of 7 children. In their village, Sumana’s family experienced discrimination because of their ethnicity. So, they moved to the larger city looking for a better life.

In the city, Sumana’s parents began working at a carpet factory, washing, dying and weaving wool in looms. They worked long hours to boost their income, but their earnings were still insufficient. The minimum wage for daily laborers at the factories was $1.60 per day; this is not a livable wage.1 To help her family, Sumana quit school and went to work at the carpet factory with her parents.

Even with Sumana working alongside her parents, their family struggled financially. Sumana’s parents decided to move back to their village and leave Sumana and her younger sister, Sai, behind in the city. Sumana and Sai continued to work in the carpet factory and send money home to their family to help with rent, food, school tuition and other expenses.

This new reality was lonely and difficult for both girls. Sumana shouldered the responsibility of working and taking care of her younger sister. Sumana went to the local school and enrolled her sister; she was determined for Sai to have an education, even if she could not. Sai began attending school, but she struggled to understand the materials and complete her homework because Sumana could not help her.

Sumana shared her situation with a coworker. Sumana’s coworker told her about GFA World’s Child Sponsorship Program. Sumana enrolled Sai in the program; GFA World paid for Sai’s school tuition and supplies and offered tutoring to help with her school work. Sai’s grades and excitement for school grew.

Sumana and Sai’s situation is not unique; hundreds of thousands of girls worldwide leave school to work to help their families survive poverty.


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