Community School
$550.00
Keeping kids in school. Contribute towards the overall cost of a community school, and help more children go further in their education. Community school projects also provide support and training for teachers and help engage the community with the importance of education.
Gifts and donations of $2 or more are tax deductible.
Should the number of items sold or the funds raised exceed the amount needed for the projects these gifts are intended to fund, TEAR Australia will redirect donations to similar development work.
Community change leads to more girls in school
In remote tribal communities in northern Laos, girls either don’t go to school at all, or they attend for one or two years and are then pulled out to help their family at home. Of those girls that do stay in school, few have the opportunity to continue to higher grades as their local village schools usually only go up to Grade 2.
As part of its Community Livelihoods Project, TEAR partner, World Renew (formerly CRWRC), Laos, has been working with some of these tribal communities in the far northern Phongsaly province to increase the number of girls going to and staying in school. It’s doing this through family awareness raising and the facilitation of the construction of both village and area level schools (servicing around 6-9 villages), to which communities contribute around 25-30% of the cost. When the project began four years ago, only 15% of girls in the district were attending school, but now it’s closer to 65%, with almost 100% of boys in school.
The new schools – of which TEAR has now funded three – have been a community-driven initiative. Parents are actively involved in the running of the schools, forming Parent Teacher Associations that are responsible for managing and maintaining the school.
The community has also responded positively to engagement on the issues of child rights, safety and risk. Parents are now much more aware of the importance of sending girls to school, and have developed a child protection policy for both village and area schools, with some insisting on having child protection rules for their communities as well.
About our partner - The Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC)
CRWRC is the relief and development arm of the Christian Reformed Church. CRWRC reaches out to people struggling with poverty, hunger, disaster, and injustice to help them find lasting ways to improve their lives.
