- October 10, 2016
- Posted by: Team SAi
- Categories: Development, Fundraising
by Fanuel Muindi
STEM Advocacy recently raised $1284 for a non profit called AGE Africa (Advancing Girls’ Education in Africa) that provides young women with educational opportunities in Malawi. As stated on their website, “Age Africa’s mission is to provide life-changing opportunities to young women in Malawi through targeted initiatives in education, mentoring, and leadership development”. Their vision is that “all girls in Africa will have equal access to secondary education, and that young scholars will be empowered to finish school.”
An important focus of the organization is on young women, This is the key. Focusing on young women will have a powerful longterm impact as that will trickle throughout their communities. It is this reason that we decided to support them by running the 2016 Half Marathon in Manchester-by-the-sea in Massachusetts which allowed us to raise the funds. Overall, the funds raised will go towards comprehensive scholarships for talented but impoverished young women at their partner schools. AGE Africa’s scholarships cover the cost of tuition, as well as the indirect costs of attending school, such as uniforms, school supplies, personal hygiene products, and transportation to and from school. All of their scholarship recipients also attend our extracurricular program, CHATS (Creating Healthy Approaches to Success), which seeks to develop self-confidence and agency, build self-advocacy, educate girls on gender, sexual and reproductive health and rights, fill critical information gaps about higher education, and train girls as social entrepreneurs.
Right now, their main goal is to raise $150,000 to provide 200 comprehensive scholarships for young women! Here is the breakdown of potential impact of the funds from STEM Advocacy:
$750 provide a comprehensive scholarship for one girl for a year
$500 cover the cost of tuition for one girl for a year
$250 sponsor our CHATS Program for one girl for a year
$100 provide a bicycle for two girls to travel to and from school
$50 provide school supplies for one girl for a year
$35 provide a school uniform for a girl