In Focus

Empowering African girls and women for life Empowering African girls and women for life
A key concern of the African education sector today is ensuring that education programmes equip young Africans with the ideal combination of knowledge and practical skills for the transition to productive adult life. With the gross enrolment ratio in…

Voices

Giving young women a second chance – the FAWE technical skills programme Giving young women a second chance – the FAWE technical skills programme
Education helps the most vulnerable people transform their lives. Twenty-four year old Estelle Bangura from Sierra Leone is living proof of this.

Hantsambou Primary School, Comoros

Established 2004

  • 103 female students  
  • 138 male students
  • 7 teachers

2009

  • 81 female students  
  • 108 male students
  • 6 teachers

Challenges

  • Poverty

COE components

  • Bursaries for underprivileged students
  • Gender-Responsive Pedagogy training for teachers
  • Malaria sensitisation

Outcomes since creation

  • 58.3% improvement in performance in national exams
  • 69.38% improvement in performance in end-of-year school exams
  • 100% improvement in retention rates for girls
  • 100% reduction in schoolgirl pregnancy rates
  • 100% reduction in sexual harassment
  • 2.46% of girls in school committees and other leadership roles

Girls are empowered to:

  • Be self-confident
  • Solve problems autonomously

Boys are empowered to:

  • Work together for the development of the school

"It is because of FAWECOM and its advice, the opening of a Centre of Excellence and the construction of toilets that I didn’t leave school."

Anziza Bakar
14 years

"I wanted to leave school but thanks to FAWECOM who opened a Centre of Excellence for us, I have understood the importance of school and now I go to class as I should."

Said Bakar Soilih
13 years

"Since our school was first opened in 1977 with around 30 students, a quarter of whom were girls, it has been an ordinary school like other schools with a low level of academic success for girls. But in 2007 things changed because of FAWE and its strategic plan to increase access and improve retention and the quality of education for girls. The immediate result of the COE is an improvement in end-of-year school results; the group work within the school; and the constant collective work between the school management and the village community."

Ankili Ali
Chairperson of the COE pilot commitee

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