2. Overview
Our group is aiming to empower girls by providing a safe atmosphere for education
as well as teaching boys about equality. We have 2 parts to our solution which
have a time frame of 1-2 years: policy suggestions/ changes and empowering
classroom courses. For our policy changes, we aim to engage local NGOs and the
governments to incentivise girl-child education through subsidies for their families,
using government funds or donations and have safety infrastructure for these girls
while travelling to schools and in their classrooms. For our courses, we aim to help
local schools in developing countries create an empowering atmosphere in the
classrooms that transcend gender roles through home economy lessons, staff
facilitated peer tutoring and mentorship programs and discussions about sexual
health & reproduction inculcated in the curriculum.
3. Curriculum Solutions
A multifaceted program that contains a co educational curriculum in which classes in sexual health, home
development skills, and entrepreneurial skills are taught. Both boys and girls will be required to take these
courses.
In conjunction with the courses, girls will be enrolled in a mentorship program focused on girls in which
they will be paired with an elder girl who is educated and exemplifies what it means to be an educated,
independent girl.
There will be a daycare at the school where mothers can send their children. This will empower those
women and the girls and boys in the school can learn how to care for children.
The children will have access to communication with children from other countries over the internet to
expand their global imaginary. This will be beneficial for the children from other countries as well.
4. Policy Solutions
To encourage families to send their girls to school, we will have a bus system that
will transport young girls to school. In addition, we will have female police officers
that will help escort girls to school.
We would also request the local governments to incentivize girl-child education for
their families through subsidies using public funds and donations.
5. Target Beneficiaries
Girls aged 5-25
Boys aged 5-25
The emphasis will be mostly on girls in developing countries of Asia, Middle-East
and Africa. We will encourage them to be involved with courses and activities that
will teach them skills to be independent and become leaders. We will also educate
boys along with the girls in order to teach the boys about the importance of
equality.
6. This application will be carried out as a mandatory school course as well as a
supplementary mentor program. Students will be automatically enrolled once they
start school and continue throughout the time they spend in school. They also have
the option to continue in the program after they leave school until they reach 25
years of age. The course includes the sexual health education and home
economics component. Outside the classroom, students will interact with their
female mentors. These meetings will take place at least once a week, and the
location will be up to the mentor and mentee.
Hence the goal is to empower girls in K-12 schools and universities to become
independent citizens of the global economy while providing an environment for
strong peer-relationship development. The empowering changes to the curriculum
and the inspirational bonds developed during the mentorship program, would help
Applying the
Plan:
7. Essential Resources: Plan to Attain Them
We will need funds to pay for the policewomen escorting the girls to school, the
supplies needed for the curriculum and the staff/teachers who are supporting the
program. These funds can be obtained through fundraising or through the
government.
We will also need mentors for the girls; women who have experience in different
fields (doctors, teachers, lawyers, community leaders, etc) who are willing to share
their experiences and support the girls still in school. These mentors can be hired
as staff or put in their time as volunteers.
8. What are the goals and objective of this plan?
-To encourage families to send their girls to school
-To encourage girls to be financially independent and to gain skills that will help
them be successful in the global network
-To encourage girls to be confident in their bodies and their own abilities
-To teach boys about equality and to influence them to treat women with respect
9. ‘Successful’ Aspects
-Mentorship programs will encourage girls to pursue higher education
-The daycare will encourage young mothers to attend school. It will also
teach young boys caretaking skills
-The transportation system and the police officers will provide a safety that
will help encourage families to go to school
-Boys will engage in courses and activities that will teach them skills
traditionally meant for girls. In addition, the coeducational environment will
teach them about respect.
10. Peer and Instructor Feedback
We incorporated feedback from our peer and instructors by taking new
perspectives and ideas and implementing them into our plan when applicable.
More, some of our peers brought to our attention some of the limitations of our
published plans. For instance, how we can implement specific plans for both local
and global actors/supporters for the plan, for dorms, and policy change to improve
education and personal lives. We have gathered feedback from the start of phase
1 and have made improvements in response to the input.
11. Measuring Efficiency and Succcess
-We will have more mentors who will join the program in the future. These mentors
will have hopefully been a part of the program
-In order to measure success we will see an increase in girls’ enrollments in the
program
-There must be a high retention rate of students, at least over 60% at the end of
first year.
12. Theories that Inform the Plan:
Capabilities Approach:
Bodily Health and Integrity - sanitary pad making, security guards. Also teaching boys to respect girls.
Senses, Imagination, and Thought - arts and crafts
Control Over One’s Environment and Practical Reason: Home Economics Course
Cosmopolitanism:
Increasing understanding and appreciation amongst individuals as well as expanding our global imaginary- virtual
mentorship
Justice Globalism essentially supports this plan since it seeks to create better education for girls and dismantle
gender inequality ideologies in boys, girls and everything in between. By empowering these girls in developing
countries to become independent citizens of the global economy, we aim to create a fairer world in which every
human matters.
13. Citations
1) Creating capabilities, Martha Nussbaum, Education 142, UC Online
2) Appiah, K. (2008). Education for global citizenship. Yearbook of the National
Society for the Study of Education, 107(1), 83-99
3) Nussbaum, M. (2011). Creating capabilities: The Human Development
Approach. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Chapters 1-3, then p. 152-157
&185- 189
4) Walker, M. (2012). “A capital or capabilities education narrative in a world of
staggering inequalities?” International Journal of Educational Development 32(3),
384- 393.
