Jinja, Uganda – When girls are educated, they are able to pull themselves out of poverty and communities are transformed. Yet, millions of girls around the world are still forced to drop out of school, simply because of their gender.
At just 13-years-old, Mercy was one of many thousands of girls in Uganda who had to leave school because her parents could no longer afford to pay tuition for her, preferring to pay for her brothers instead. Mercy was expected to stay at home and help on the family farm while her chances of completing her education quickly became a far-off dream.
Thanks to our Allies, Bright Hope has been working to empower the local church to realize its responsibility to support families and vulnerable children through Family Empowerment trainings. Through these trainings, local church leaders realized the struggles faced by young girls in their community and were confronted with the challenge that parents didn’t value their education.
Heartbroken by this discovery, church leaders came together to teach parents from the community about the importance of sending their daughters to school. They even created scholarship opportunities to help parents pay the tuition to ensure their daughters could receive the education they so equally deserve.
Young girls in Uganda are now being given the chance to receive an education and be the change in their communities. Today, Mercy’s parents have realized the importance of her education as a result of the trainings and she has been reenrolled in school.
Mercy said, “I am happy to be in school again…I pray that I will be able to complete my primary education”
