March 8th has arrived! A day internationally dedicated to all women and girls across the globe!
It is day to reflect on gender equality and social justice, to celebrate progress and honour the many brilliant women in our lives!
It’s also a day to recognize the challenges and hurdles we, as a global community, have yet to overcome in building a society which is just and equal for all regardless of sex or gender.
Thanks to YOUR SUPPORT, we can continue to empower and support women and girls, especially those at the margins and disadvantaged further by poverty and oppression.
At IJI we believe education is the key to development and are the vital steppingstones for a brighter future.
On the international stage, the United Nations has focused its attention on women in STEM and the disparities between men and women within the field of science and tech.
The exclusion of women and girls happens for a number of reasons, but one cause happens very early on in the lives of girls – the lack of encouragement and support within the classroom to strive and engage with the sector. UNESCO found that women made up “only 35% of STEM graduates” – but this is a statistic that can transform with social change.
In the places where we work keeping girls in school, let alone encouraged to pursue science and engineering, is a major victory.
Girls’ education in South Sudan.
More than 70% of children are estimated to be out of school in South Sudan and with your help we are changing that!
Of the 2.8 million children out of school, the vast majority are girls where poverty, forced marriages and harmful cultural practices oppress and hinder girls just trying to make something of themselves.
As well as encouraging girls to study, South Sudan suffers from another huge dilemma of teacher shortages.
This is why your support in helping us develop skilled and empathic teachers is vital to building brighter futures for the world’s most marginalised.
Teacher looks over students with chalkboards in an outdoor lesson at St Justina’s primary, Cuiebet
In 2024 alone, we trained 179 teachers in the full-time Pre-service Teacher Training Certificate (2-year course) and part-time In-service Teacher Training Certificate (4-year course) at the Mazzolari Teacher Training College (MTTC) in Cuiebet, South Sudan.
This support is growing further afield beyond the Cueibet campus as our trainers travel by bicycle into areas unreached by road, to provide in-service training in very remote schools.
These trainings are transformative, not only addressing huge education needs, but also bringing social change to push back on views and prejudices holding women and girls back.
Often our teachers share their frustrations on the challenges facing their female students. “Teachers spoke of working in other schools, where pupils are still under the ‘yoke of the cane’, especially the girls, where it is believed that if girls are not caned ‘they will grow horns’,” says Kizito Busobozi SJ, Director of MTTC.
80% of the people of Lakes State are pastoralist, relying on their cattle as their means of financial security. Cattle are used for paying dowry to the parents of a girl who a man wants to marry.
South Sudan has the world’s highest rates of child marriage, with more than half of girls marrying under age 18. It causes huge distress to girls being married to an older man they are not interested in, sharing that their parents treat them like ‘cattle’, not taking their own preferences into consideration.
This inter-generational divide between the youth and parents is stark and growing within Lakes State.
One of the teachers explained, that even in her 30s, she herself is still at risk of being married off by her parents to an older man, for cattle. Despite her education and being an established teacher, it’s a fear she must live with, every day, when she comes home from work – that her life may be turned upside down, without her consultation, so that her parents can get her dowry price.
Thanks to your generosity we can continue to upskill teachers who are conscious of the injustices women and girls face and build opportunities for girls to reach their potential.
This change is making waves from Cueibet to refugee settlements in Maban, where teacher training is bringing education to the most vulnerable, especially those fleeing war and violence – your support is bringing hope to the lives of so many mothers and their daughters.
Alima, is a teacher-trainer who is bringing education to the most isolated parts of South Sudan, accompanying refugees in Maban and empowering them to make a positive difference in their communities.
We continue to support women supporting women
Empowering women: Education & beyond …
Beyond developing educators and the basics of keeping seats full in classrooms, we have been tackling period poverty – another huge barrier placing girls at greater disadvantages.
Period poverty is the struggle many women and girls from low-income households’ face while trying to afford menstrual products.
As well as the lack of affordable hygiene products, misinformation and a lack of education worsens the experience of vulnerable girls and compels them to miss school and feel ashamed for bleeding – this domino effect means teens are jeopardising their own futures over needless period stigma.
Last year in Uganda alone, you supported 1,187 students across 8 schools get the support and guidance through hygiene kits and advocacy campaigns to dispel myths and breakdown stigma.
It’s estimated that one in 10 girls in Africa will miss school when they have their periods and without the right support and guidance, girls can drop out altogether leaving them more vulnerable to child marriage.
At IJI, we are determined to change that and with your help we have changed the lives of girls for the better!
To find out more about our projects that are empowering women and girls, click here
And do something amazing for #IWD2025 and donate today!
Feature image credit: Paula Casado Aguirregabiria. Mother with toddler at Renk in South Sudan, a transit area & border crossing for refugees fleeing the Sudan crisis.