OUR IMPACT
The facts are clear: educating children empowers the next generation with the life skills to transform their lives, the lives of their children and their communities.
Since the creation of our Education pillar, more than 1500 schools and school rooms have been built in WE Charity communities, giving 200,000 children the opportunity to gain an education and realize their true potential.
Education may provide the highest return of any social investment. Perhaps not surprisingly, that return is most profound when taking into account the impact of educating girls.
- The impact of school on a woman’s earning power is linked directly to higher economic growth. In developing countries, each additional year of schooling is associated with a 10% to 20% increase in women’s wages.
- When women and girls earn an income, they re-invest 90% of that income back into their families, as opposed to 30 to 40% for men.
- Educated girls are more likely to marry later and have fewer children. For example, women in Mali with a secondary school education or higher have an average of three children, while those with no education have an average of seven.
- Children born to educated mothers are less likely to be malnourished, according to UNESCO. In fact, each additional year a girl goes to school helps reduce the child mortality rate by 2%.
- Educated girls are less vulnerable to sexual exploitation and to sexually transmitted disease.