How We Work to Remove Barriers of Education – Volume 1, Episode 7: Nurturing Minds
Dig deeper into the impact we have been able to make through our grants award program to learn more about how we are helping to remove barriers to education for girls in Tanzania. Over the years, we have been able to fund multiple grants to help girls at the SEGA Girls School. Listen now to learn about the holistic approach taken to help uplift the girls who have been impacted by these grant awards.
About Nurturing Minds
In 2022, Nurturing Minds was awarded a $10,000 grant in support of SEGA’s Modern Girl (Msichana Kisasa, “MK”) Community Outreach Program (MK). This program provides vulnerable girls from impoverished communities with an education about their reproductive health and human rights, along with skills-based training to help them generate income through small business initiatives. The MK program was established with a mission to combat the gender-based systems of oppression that exist within Tanzanian society. In response to feedback from participants, skills-based training in profit-generating activities was incorporated into the program. The ability to generate income through safe activities like selling homemade carpets and snacks allows girls to reduce instances of exploitation as they can leave oppressive situations more easily. It also allows them to avoid the exploitation that exists in the formal job market through operating their own small businesses. The MK program provides participants with mentors from the same socioeconomic, cultural, and linguistic backgrounds, allowing participants to witness directly that success and transformation are possible for them, since their mentors were once in their position. Each MK center carries an operating cost of $5,000, educates approximately 25 participants, and employs two mentors. Circle of Sisterhood’s grant will support operations at two MK centers.
Nurturing Minds’ mission is to provide financial and technical assistance to programs improving access to quality education and life skills for girls in Tanzania, with a particular emphasis on girls who are poor, marginalized, and at-risk of becoming involved in exploitative forms of child labor. Nurturing Minds achieves this through the development and support of the SEGA Girls School. SEGA provides tuition-free education with all the necessities included – uniforms, school supplies, medical exams, counseling, food, and a safe environment – where students can continue their studies and not be forced to drop out of school. The school also provides comprehensive education to all students about sexual reproductive health and pregnancy prevention, to help girls delay marriage and pregnancy and complete their education. CofS has awarded Nurturing Minds three grants ($5,000 in 2016 and $10,000 in 2017 and 2019) to support their Connecting Communities to Quality Education program. Our funds support the holistic education of 270 girls at SEGA Girls School and contribute to systemic change in Tanzania by engaging critical players at all levels to remove barriers to girls’ education, including local government authorities, parents, teachers and the students themselves. This program specifically addresses: 1) Lack of resources for tuition and school materials (through the provision of school supplies and uniforms); 2) Insufficient education quality (via teacher capacity strengthening and participatory learning approach); 3) Poor parental and social support to girls (through parent seminars); 4) Disempowerment/marginalization of girls (through Education for Life program and support for life skills materials; and 5) Early pregnancy (through admitting girls who have children, and providing prevention education through the Education for Life program and support for life skills materials).