TEJ 1st session photos

TEJ 1st session photos

On Saturday morning, July 5, 2014, 40 young women came to the Rupakot Learning Center in the Lamjung Valley of Nepal to begin an exciting new program, The TEJ Initiative.  The TEJ Initiative has been a life long dream of Dr. Anju Ranjit who has designed this program for girls who are in secondary school in Nepal.

In Nepal the primary school attendance rate for girls is 95% while the secondary school attendance rate for girls is 38% (1). This huge gap in the enrollment ratio highlights the discrimination towards girls for higher education. In a patriarchal society – where women still have to fight for the basic rights – the lack of educational opportunities leads to unemployment, lack of information about basic healthcare and health rights, early marriage and early pregnancies. This is a vicious cycle.

The prevalence of child marriage in Nepal among females is 52.4% and is found to be most prevalent in the illiterate group (2). The median age of first pregnancy in Nepal is 17.5 years (3). High-risk teenage pregnancy is one the main reasons for the high rates of maternal mortality and morbidity in Nepal. Illiteracy leads to unemployment and discourages women empowerment.

It has been shown that educated and employed women tend to be older on their first pregnancy and have a better health course over their lifetime. The better health outcomes are due to the awareness about their health status and their health rights, decreased risk behavior regarding health and delayed pregnancy. Each additional year of education for a girl leads to up to 25% increase in their income. Educated girls are empowered and are capable of making life choices on their own to fulfill their dreams. Educating the girls will help improve the health of their family as well because an educated girl will be able to relay the information to her parents, especially their mother regarding women’s health and younger children in the family.

While giving these vulnerable girls an opportunity to continue their education is important, it is equally important for them to feel empowered with the education they have. Most of the curriculums in schools in Nepal are not based on this concept. To see change in the empowerment level among women, the change has to come from within. Girls who are in secondary school need to realize the importance of education and develop the confidence to pursue it. Giving them a platform to discuss the obstacles, opportunities for growth as a woman, health issues and providing them with guidance to look forward to a future beyond marriage and childbirth at this crucial age will bring about the change in the empowerment level in women that Nepal needs. There need to be more women leaders in the villages of Nepal who can work to improve the health of other women in their community. The “TEJ initiative”(The Education Journey) is an attempt to help these girls build upon the dream for a higher education, develop leadership potential and emerge as empowered women ready to take on new roles in the society.

References:

1.Unicef, 2011

2.Child marriage in Nepal-Research Report- Plan Nepal, 2012

3.Nepal Demographic Health Survey, 2011