Innovation through action: A community-based solution to getting girls back into school with Jifundishe

The impact of COVID19 on girls’ education is an epidemic in and of itself.  In Tanzania, schools closed for 2-3.5 months, or the equivalent of one full school term.  Even prior to COVID19, at least 6,475 school girls in Tanzania dropped out of school in 2020 over pregnancy[1]. Only 17% of girls continue past 7th grade to secondary school and fewer still (less than 2%) attend college, which dramatically impacts all aspects of the lives of Tanzanian girls, especially poor girls.

Between September 2020 and March 2021, AMPLIFY Girls undertook a qualitative study on the impact of COVID-19 and prolonged school closure on girls’ education and return to school in East Africa (Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya) - Understanding the Barriers to Girls’ School Return: Girls’ Voices from the Frontline of the COVID-19 Pandemic in East Africa.

At the highest level, our findings suggested that pregnancy (or early marriage resulting from pregnancy) is the primary driver of girls’ dropout from school during the pandemic, but that pregnancy is a symptom of underlying, acute, economic vulnerabilities and is augmented by situations of social and physical isolation that are often mutually reinforcing. The overwhelming majority of pregnant girls in the study, reported becoming pregnant after engaging in transactional sex for basic goods—primarily basic needs.

While our evidence shows that the burdens girls faced, during the pandemic such as increased household responsibilities and sexual violence, are indeed unique to girls, we also found that current situations of gender discrimination are deeper and more complex than typical pre-pandemic narratives.  Our research suggests that the social stigma surrounding teen pregnancy and motherhood, is the single biggest factor keeping girls from returning to school post-pandemic.  

So what do we do now?

Across the region, community-driven organizations are innovating everyday on new ways to keep girls in the education system by continuously providing access to education materials. These organizations are often overlooked as they are seen as too small and therefore deemed ineffective. At AMPLIFY Girls, we believe that in order to ensure that girls return to school, we must turn towards the communities on the frontline of this crisis and the organizations that serve them. That they are in fact extremely effective in their interventions and are getting girls back into education and providing them with the support they need to succeed.

One such organization, based in rural Tanzania is Jifundishe. Led by Anande Mrisho, Jifundishe created a community library where students could come access books and receive educational support to be eligible for national examinations.