Program Summary Girls stay in school

Sebastopol Rotarian Jeff Boal opened Sunrise hearts and minds with his ongoing commitment to keeping girls in school in Uganda.

Through a creative partnership with the Anthill Foundation, founded by equally  generous and visionary Sebastopol Rotarians Frank and Kathie Mayhew (www.anthillfoundtioin.org) Jeff has leveraged Rotary resources to help girls remain enrolled in better equipped schools.  Academic performance has risen as well as health and school sustainability.  

In a country with a population slightly smaller than California, 35 million, Uganda is just the area of Oregon, with the average income less than $2US/day.  Compounding the issues surrounding this extreme poverty are ones bearing on feminine hygiene:  Girls menstrual cycles have been viewed as a sickness, combined with too frequent lack of privacy in school bathrooms, aka, open-door-pit latrines.  With such conditions, girls are more inclined to stay away from school once their menstruation starts.

Jeff's Rotary impetus and the Anthill Foundation support build schools with acceptable restrooms, equip classes with desks and provide an atmosphere more conducive to learning.  Overcoming superstition, myths and misconceptions has increased attendance and girls eagerness to overcome subsistence based lives.  Instead of dropping out of school, marrying in their teens with their parent's hopes of an early dowry, girls now recognize their advantage to remain in school and obtain a substantially better standard of living which also translates into superior security for their parents as well.

Jeff, Frank and Kathie, KUDO's for inspiring dreams, and making them more the norm than exception!!