₦airaland Forum

Another School Barrier for African Girls: No Toilet
                   
By SHARON LaFRANIERE

Vanessa Vick for The New York Times

Fatimah Bamun, 14, is the only girl in her fourt-grade class in Balizenda, Ethiopia, where a lack of sanitation threatens education for girls. More Images / Related text: Slavery in the family

BALIZENDA, Ethiopia - Fatimah Bamun dropped out of Balizenda Primary School in first grade, more than three years ago, when her father refused to buy her pencils and paper. Only after teachers convinced him that his daughter showed unusual promise did he relent. Today Fatimah, 14, tall and slender, studies math and Amharic, Ethiopia's official language, in a dirt-floored fourth-grade classroom.

Whether she will reach fifth grade is another matter. Fatimah is facing the onset of puberty, and with it the realities of menstruation in a school with no latrine, no water, no hope of privacy other than the shadow of a bush, and no girlfriends with whom to commiserate. Fatimah is the only girl of the 23 students in her class. In fact, in a school of 178 students, she is one of only three girls who has made it past third grade.

Even the women among the school's teachers say they have no choice but to use the thorny scrub, in plain sight of classrooms, as a toilet.

"It is really too difficult," said Azeb Beyene, who arrived here in September to teach fifth grade. Here and throughout sub-Saharan Africa, schoolgirls can only empathize. In a region where poverty, tradition and ignorance deprive an estimated 24 million girls even of an elementary school education, the lack of school toilets and water is one of many obstacles to girls' attendance, and until recently was considered unfit for discussion. In some rural communities in the region, menstruation itself is so taboo that girls are prohibited from cooking or even banished to the countryside during their periods.

But that impact is substantial. Researchers throughout sub-Saharan Africa have documented that lack of sanitary pads, a clean, girls-only latrine and water for washing hands drives a significant number of girls from school. The United Nations Children's Fund, for example, estimates that one in 10 school-age African girls either skips school during menstruation or drops out entirely because of lack of sanitation.

The average schoolgirl's struggle for privacy is emblematic of the uphill battle for public education in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly among girls. With slightly more than 6 in 10 eligible children enrolled in primary school, the region's enrollment rates are the lowest in the world.

Beyond that, enrollment among primary school-aged girls is 8 percent lower than among boys, according to the United Nations Children's Fund, Unicef. And of those girls who enroll, 9 percent more drop out before the end of sixth grade than boys.

African girls in poor, rural areas like Balizenda are even more likely to lose out. The World Bank estimated in 1999 that only one in four of them was enrolled in primary school.

The issue, advocates for children say, is not merely fairness. The World Bank contends that if women in sub-Saharan Africa had equal access to education, land, credit and other assets like fertilizer, the region's gross national product could increase by almost one additional percentage point annually. Mark Blackden, one of the bank's lead analysts, said Africa's progress was inextricably linked to the fate of girls.

"There is a connection between growth in Africa and gender equality," he said. "It is of great importance but still ignored by so many."

The pressure on girls to drop out peaks with the advent of puberty and the problems that accompany maturity, like sexual harassment by male teachers, ever growing responsibilities at home and parental pressure to marry. Female teachers who could act as role models are also in short supply in sub-Saharan Africa: they make up a quarter or less of the primary school teachers in 12 nations, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

Florence Kanyike, the Uganda coordinator for the Forum of Women Educationalists, a Nairobi-based organization that lobbies for education for girls, said the harsh inconvenience of menstruation in schools without sanitation was just one more reason for girls to stay home.

They miss three or four days of school," she said. "They find themselves lagging behind, and because they don't perform well, their interest fails. They start to think, 'What are we doing here?' The biggest number of them drop out in year five or six."

Increasingly, international organizations, African education ministries and the continent's fledgling women's rights movements are rallying behind the notion of a "girl friendly" school, one that is more secure and closer to home, with a healthy share of female teachers and a clean toilet with a door and water for washing hands.

In Guinea, enrollment rates for girls from 1997 to 2002 jumped 17 percent after improvements in school sanitation, according to a recent Unicef report. The dropout rate among girls fell by an even bigger percentage. Schools in northeastern Nigeria showed substantial gains after Unicef and donors built thousands of latrines, trained thousands of teachers and established school health clubs, the agency contends.

Ethiopia has also made strides. More than 6 in 10 girls of primary-school age are enrolled in school this year, compared with fewer than 4 in 10 girls in 1999. Still, boys are far ahead, with nearly 8 in 10 of them enrolled in primary school.

Unicef is building latrines and bringing clean water to 300 Ethiopian schools. But more than half of the nation's 13,181 primary schools lack water, more than half lack latrines and some lack both. Moreover, those with latrines may have just one for 300 students, Therese Dooley, Unicef's sanitation project officer, said. In theory, at least, outfitting Ethiopia's schools with basic facilities can be cheap and simple, she said. Toilets need be little more than pits and concrete slabs with walls and a door; rain can be trapped on a school's roof and strained through sand.

Still, she said, toilets for boys and girls must be clearly separate and students who may have never seen a latrine must be taught the importance of using one. And the toilets must be kept clean, a task that frequently falls to the very schoolgirls who were supposed to benefit most.

In Benishangul Gumuz Province in western Ethiopia, where low mountains rise over brilliant yellow fields of oilseeds, such amenities are rare indeed. Guma, a town of 13,000 about an hour's drive from Balizenda over a viciously rutted road, has water only sporadically. The town's main street is dotted with shops, but not one sells sanitary pads. Few residents could afford them anyway. Women make do with folded rags.

Balizenda primary school, with 178 students, is a long, litter-strewn building in a dirt clearing surrounded by brush. Two lopsided reed-walled huts pass for fifth- and sixth-grade classrooms. On the playground soccer field, three tree limbs lashed together form the goal.

With the exception of the first grade, where girls are more than a third of the pupils, Balizenda could be mistaken for an all-boys' school. Only 13 girls are enrolled in grades two through six, and even that is an improvement over three months ago.

"When I came here in September, there was not a single female student" in the entire school, said Tisge Tsegaw, 22, the first-grade teacher. "We went to the homes and motivated the parents, and then they came."

But in many cases, not for long. "The parents prioritize. They figure if the girls stay home, they can do the grinding, help with the harvesting, fetch the water and collect the firewood," Ms. Tsegaw said. "They agree to enroll them. Then after two months, they take them back."

The school's latrine, a hovel of thatch and reeds, fell down last year. Yehwala Mesfin, the school's director, said neither the villagers nor the Education Ministry would help build a new one. Parents viewed their annual rebuilding of the reed-walled fifth- and sixth-grade classrooms as a sufficient contribution, he said.

Ms. Beyene, the fifth-grade teacher who arrived here in September, said she agreed to stay at Balizenda only after Mr. Mesfin promised that she could use a toilet at a health center nearby. But since then, the health center has been closed for lack of staff.

"The majority of time I use the open field," she said. "There is no privacy. Everybody comes, even the students. So we try to restrict ourselves to urinate before school and at nighttime. I already have a kidney infection because of this. My situation is getting worse."

The school's only sixth-grade girls, Mesert Mesfin, 17, and Worknesh Anteneh, 15, said that when they could not resist nature's call, they stood guard for each other in the field. When her period began one recent Thursday morning, Mesert said, she had no choice but to run home. Worknesh said she sometimes avoided school during her period. "It is really a shame," she said. "I am really bothered by this."

Fatimah Bamun, who started school so late that at 14 she is only in fourth grade, said she did not want to miss a single class because she wanted to be a teacher. But, she added, she does not have a lot of backing from her friends.

"I have no friend in the class," she said. "Most of my friends have dropped out to get married. So during the break, I just sit in the classroom and read."

Her father, however, now says he is fully behind her. "The people from the government are all the time telling us to send our daughters to school, and I am listening to these people," he said.

Neither Fatimah's older sister nor mother went to school. And Fatimah is all too familiar with the alternatives for illiterate girls. When she returns home after school each day, she is greeted by another girl, named Eko, who lives in her hut. Thin and poorly dressed, 12 years old at most, Eko is literally a wedding present, given to the Bamuns when Fatimah's sister married Eko's brother.

Before the wedding, Eko was an avid second grader. "I liked school very much; it would have been better to stay in school," she said quietly, picking at her callused hands. Now she is the Bamun family servant, up at sunrise to pound sorghum with a stone for the breakfast porridge. Her education is vicarious.

"She always asks me, 'When are you going to school?' " Fatimah said. " 'What do you do there? What subjects do you study?' "

Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company. Reprinted from The New York Times, International, of Friday, December 23, 2005.                                                 

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Ndipe's comment.
Word!

I dont know of any Nigerian girl, from a less privileged background who would shove their face away from Always for attempting to help them out. Needlelady, please you are no ambassador of these girls.

No abortion please. 2 wrongs dont make a right.

@kobojunkie, your school was better, Chei, and I was so flummoxed as to what caused this 'accidents'. Now, I know, expensive tampons and pads force these girls to use an inferior alternative therebuy risking embarrasment and their self dignity. Now, an american company is trying to help out (and what is the Nigerian government doing to assist?) and someone here is taking offense at it. Some people no like good thing.

Why would you expect anybody to come on a public forum and pan their parents?

It does work, only if the couple are willing to compromise. As for me, no compromise when it comes to my Faith. Jesus Christ is the Messiah of the world whether you believe it or not. May God grant me the Grace to continue to uphold my Faith in the Name of Jesus Christ Amen. So, if I tenaciously cling to my beliefs, why then, would I in the name of 'love', albeit, a temporary one compromise my stance on the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ who gave up all for the sake of my soul. Nope!

Needlelady, stop being emotional!. It's the truth, I highly doubt if there is any American girl that would use a tissue (unless it's for personal reasons) for her period. Pads here are cheap. What am I even writing? They even have it in high schools and at some public places, whereby, if your period comes unannounced, you can buy easily buy it. And the poster who is referring to Ajegunle girls wearing pads, how do you know? One may ask me how I could come by such reasoning, but I am being upfront that no girl here in America, would simply decide to use alternative protection, because of the inaccesibility or high cost of sanitary pads. It's different at some places like Zimbabwe (as another guy mentioned) where food is the first priority before buying pads. I live in the boarding house, and quite a number of times, I used to hear of stories of embarrasing incidents that girls endured because of an 'accident'

I have seen the ad on tv, and never paid attention to it, until you questioned the motive of the advertisement. Those sanitary products are out of reach for some girls from less privileged homes, and as such resort to less desirable protection like toilet tissue or worse, leaves to absorb the flow. Now, I wont be surprised if they simply take some time off school for convenience sake. It can be embarrasing.

If I am not mistaken, but I think I read the same story in the NY times. It was about the heartache of a man, who either won the green card lottery or was based in the USA, and then filed to bring over his kids. Then boom, DNA was done on the kids, and unfortunately he found out that one or so of the kids does not belong to him biologically. His wife (either alive or not) had cheated on him. He was devastated. The story is sketchy in my imagination, but I am sure I read it.

Nice and creative cakes! I have always maintained that cakes from Nigeria taste way better than cakes from yankee. Some may disagree though.

Absolutely!. Unless she is willing to convert to Christianity.

To ladies, I have to advise you to look before leaping.

If you live in Nigeria, and your step child is a male, know for certain that if hubby passes away, and does not update his will, and have a bad relationship with your step child, chances are tradition would side with him if he wants to kick you out of your matrimonial home. It happens, so dont walk into such relationships blindly.

When I was young, I wanted to be an adult, so I would be free from parental 'intrusion', now that I am old, I wish I was a child once again, under the care of my parents.

Picture was taken in downtown San Jose, not downtown Oakland.

It's deceitful to encourage people to rate your book when they have not even read it. Haba!

Stillwater, abeg leave am alone.

Olabowale, Happy Easter!

Wonderful memories of Nigeria indeed. Abeg no do make I begin dey yearn to move back to Nigeria and relieve my childhood. One could say that the epileptic electricity in Nigeria had a positive outcome. Otherwise, we would have been stuck watching Television instead of engaging in the outdoors.

Which one be "pre-Akpan ekpo problems"?

NIGERIAN ARMY OFFICER EMERGES BEST LAW STUDENT IN LONDON PDF Print E-mail
A Nigerian Army officer, Lieutenant Colonel Solomon Effiong Udounwa, has emerged the best graduating student in International Law from the University of Westminster, London in the 2006/2007 Academic Session. Colonel Udounwa who bagged the University’s LLM degree at Distinction level, also won the maiden edition of the Oxford University Prize for international Law. Born in July, 1969 in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State Lieutenant Colonel Udounwa who was commissioned into the Nigerian Army in 1991 as a member of the Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA) Regular Course 38, has been Associate member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (UK) since 2005. He also holds a masters degree in Defence Studies from the National University of Bangladesh. Colonel Udounwa was the Aide – de – Camp (ADC) to the Minister of Defence, Lieutenant General Theophilus Yakubu Danjuma (rtd), from 2001 to 2003, and was later appointed General Staff Officer 1 Operations and Training for 34 Artillery Brigade Nigerian Army, from 2004 to 2006. He had his childhood education at Lutheran Primary School, Nung Udoe from 1973 to 79, and Lutheran High School, Obot - Idim also in Asutan Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State from 1980 to 1985. Col Udounwa who enjoys reading and travelling is married with three children.

http://www.nigerian-army.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=97

One converts to Christianity.





http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080322/ts_nm/pope_easter_dc

Why it is called "Good" Friday" is that for the first time, after the fall of Adam and Eve, Salvation for Mankind was obtained not through bulls or goats, but through the Blood of Jesus Christ, the only Begotten Son of God. Glory be unto His Holy Name in the Highest, Amen.


Thank You Jesus Christ, Amen.

Kay9, have an excerpt of your novel published locally, and then go in for the Caine prize award. I think your best bet would be to contact the Association of Nigerian Authors.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Association_of_Nigerian_Authors


http://lagosana..com/

Not everyone is ready to move to another country for their children's education?

Well, for me, I think I would move. Right now, I am in a conundrum on either to live in the USA permanently or move back to Nigeria. While I miss and love Nigeria tremendously, the education back home leaves little to be desired. There is so much stress for kids to pass their external examinations which could be marred by ethnic differences. Out here in yankee, a less than stellar grade in your SAT exams does not rule you from enrolling at a junior college for your Associate degree. I like the vast opportunities out here, but I miss home. Tough to make a healthy balance.

I was browsing on the internet when I saw the school fees for one school in Lagos or thereabout. Outrageously expensive. http://www.lekkibritishhigh.com/lbihs/schoolfees.asp

Now, when I hear that Nigerians are doing well economically, are people factoring in the high school fees which would set you back financially? One guy who has a professional relationship with Mobil was complaining of his son's school fees. My cousin confirmed that his parents paid either 300 thousand Naira a year (or a semester) per person. So, now I am questioning the wisdom of educating your kids in Nigeria, when you can simply enroll them here in America, for just a fraction. I am not being insensitive please, but a lady on Nairaland raised up the dilema of either educating her kids in Nigeria or abroad.

Nna, by the time you finish paying fees in Nigeria, e be like say you no get money chop garri.

Eventually, wrinkles will set in and 'mar' our once blooming youthful face. To combat it, some vain people have resorted to plastic surgery, risking the pain associated with it, just to 'look good'. Others have submitted to the laws of mother nature and choosen to 'age gracefully'.

Which would you take? I like the second option, 'aging gracefully'. Plastic surgery, in addition to the pain and risks makes one look so artificial.

@Sentee, LOL at using your feet as substitute for bicycle brakes.

I played a lot as a kid, and would not have thought that I would graduate from the arena. Hide and seek, police and thief, "Nsa Isong" (it is a game where four abi six sets of stone are deposited into a hole and you pick them and drop one piece into the holes and continue till the end), cards, bicycle riding, tyre riding, I mean, name them. I played a lot, but fortunately, I think my parents were consoled that my grades were not affected by my playfulness. Chei, I remember once when I played outside with my cousins, I think, in the village, and my mother had to come out to look for us. I wonder if she was so worried.  Then, there was another one I used to play with my elder brother, throwing fruits with both hands like an acrobat. How can I forget Scrabble and Monopoly when I was always soundly defeated by him.

Ludo, Snakes and ladder. Man, there was so much activity going on during the holidays that boredom did not exist in our dictionary. I'd pick the outdoors over watching television as is quite common in America.

Try listing your book on Amazon.com. Also join the Association of Nigerian writers to promote it. I wish you the best!

According to some news reports, Heather Mills, the ex-wife of Paul Mccartney wanted 250 million dollars for their divorce settlement. And they had been married for four years. And it's been reported that Paul did not sign a prenuptial agreement. Its so confusing, especially when you view marriage as a life affirming contract, and another spouse may have a hidden agenda. How do you protect yourself?