Gender Equality

Imani empowers women and builds confident, successful girls. If you’re a 12-year-old girl living in one of the world’s most marginalised communities, you will most likely face less access to education than your brothers, a greater likelihood of economic and social marginalisation, the prospect of forced marriage, early pregnancy, and increased maternal mortality.

Gender Equality

Never enrolled

62 million girls between ages 6-15 are out of school and 16 million girls between ages 6-11 never enter one.
(Source: UNESCO)

Incomplete schooling

Only 34% of girls in the poorest households living in the poorest countries complete primary school.
(Source: World Bank)

Missed days of school

In Uganda, nearly 30% of girls reported missing days of school because they didn’t have access to pads when they were menstruating.
(Source: New Vision)

Lower Achievement

In Uganda, a girl is more likely to be married by 18 than to know how to read.
(Source: UNICEF)

Because of these dire statistics, Imani has taken into account women and girls in every aspect of our education approach. This has allowed us to change the futures of girls in underserved areas across Uganda. In educating them, we change the future of entire communities as women reinvest 90% of their income in their families, as opposed to 30-40% for men.

Also, educated girls and women are healthier, have the skills to make choices about their own future, and can lift themselves, their communities and their countries out of poverty. For instance, a one percentage point increase in girls’ education boosts GDP by 0.3 percentage points and raises annual GDP growth rates by 0.2 percentage points (Source: UNICEF). Again, one extra year of education for girls increases their wages by 10-20% (Source: CGD).

Here are some of the ways we focus on women and girls in and out of the classroom:

Affordable fees:

Imani’s affordable fees mean that parents don’t have to choose which child to send to school and are less likely to prioritize a boy’s education over a girl’s.

Gender-sensitive instruction:

Imani commissions all artwork and creative stories in Imani’s textbooks and workbooks to ensure equal visibility of male and female characters, and specifically represent female characters in powerful, unconventional roles. Teachers are trained to call on both boys and girls in the classroom and as fewer girls than boys usually tend to volunteer in class, teachers are trained to practice more cold calling to ensure equal participation. Teacher training and classroom management techniques focus on encouraging girls to be leaders in and out of the classroom.

Gender-sensitive school management:

Female teachers and academy managers provide a real-time role model within the classroom and community (over 60% of our teachers are women). Imani further empowers girls by creating leadership roles for girls as well as boys including head girls and prefects. Imani strongly enforces a strict policy against the expulsion of teen mothers in all its academies which encourages retention in school. We also enforce a strict policy against the use of corporal punishment on all pupils; meaning girls become more confident, expressive and engaged. Our girl pupils share the same classrooms with their male peers and all Imani academies have single-sex sanitation facilities and clear policies against inappropriate relationships between staff and pupils.

Co-Curricular Activities:

Imani encourages girls to home and practice leadership skills through participation in various co-curricular activities like drama, chess, and the arts. Girls are particularly encouraged to engage in sports like athletics, ball games and taekwondo, which typically have less female participation.