Salima District Education Manager (DEM), Chris Kumikundi has said there is hope that literacy levels among women would improve due to an increase in projects aimed at improving access to education among girls.
In an Interview with MANA on Friday after a prelaunch of a new project to support girls’ education, he said that he was happy that 90 per cent of the district is covered with education related projects.
“I am pleased that we have projects that are addressing issues that for a long time have negatively affected access to education especially among girls.”
“As of now the interventions are covering nine Traditional Authorities out of 10. This is a positive development and it is our hope that we will be able to deal with teen pregnancies, child marriages and other traditional and cultural traditional that leads to school dropout,” Kumikundi pointed out.
The new project which was introduced on Monday will be implemented by Centre of Youth Empowerment (CYECE) in the area of Traditional Authority (TA) Makanjira and some parts of TA Kuluunda.
According to CYECE District Coordinator, Joseph Magaleta, the new project called Girls Empowerment for Meaningful Participation and Education (GEMPE) would reach a target of 3000 girls and 600 boys.
“This project is worth K 162 million and will run from 2018 to 2020. We expect to empower adolescent girls and young women with decision-making skills over their education, own sexuality and improve their access to Sexually Reproductive Health information and resources,” he disclosed.
Magaleta appealed for support and collaboration among all stakeholders working towards eliminating prevailing cultural, traditional norms that hinder access to education especially among girls.
According to Salima Social Economic Profile 2018-2022 school drop rate has dropped to five per cent in areas that are already implementing interventions targeting bad cultural practices.