Empowering girls and women is crucial to breaking the cycle of poverty
EMPOWERING WOMEN: Learners from Tshwarathebe Primary School in QwaQwa, in the Free State. This school takes part in MRP Foundation’s holistic Schools Programme. Image: MRP Foundation / Pierre Tostee
Gender equality and the empowerment of girls and women is one of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals outlined by the United Nations. Through MRP Foundation’s education and skills development programmes, women and girls are empowered, which according to the UN is “essential to expanding economic growth and promoting social development.”
Skills Development is a vital way in which women can be empowered. Since 2016, MRP Foundation has been involved in the training and development of more than 13,000 women, building careers though our Jump Start programmes. Of these women, 45% have found permanent positions in the retail industry, which means that more than 6,000 women are employed as a result of being part of the programmes. Each of the Jump Start programmes, teaches personal and professional life skills, which are vital to any learning journey.
MRP Foundation’s Schools Programme focuses on holistic schools development. In 2018 of the 77,303 learners who benefitted from the programme, 38,076 were girls. The schools programme ensures that learners take part in physical education activities as well as quality education initiatives. The programme also empowers educators with content knowledge and professional skills to excel in their profession. In 2019, the Schools Programme is empowering 2,179 female educators.
What can we do to help with gender equality and the empowerment?
If you are a girl, you can stay in school, help empower your female classmates to do the same and fight for your right to access sexual and reproductive health services.
If you are a woman, you can address unconscious biases and implicit associations that form an unintended and often an invisible barrier to equal opportunity.
If you are a man or boy you can work alongside women and girls to achieve gender equality and embrace healthy, respectful relationships.
Read more about gender equality, from the United Nations, here.
*Points above taken from the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
