Empowering Girls' through Education as a Means of Promoting human Security in Ethiopia: A Case Study of Jewish Distribution Committee (JDC)
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Date
2016-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Since the "UN Declaration of the Decade of Women" in 1975, attention and action on women's concerns have steadily increased and education, whether it be the form of consciousness-raising or skills acquisition, was one of the areas women's organizations, government agencies and international donor agencies focused on. The underlying assumption was that if women understood their conditions, knew their rights and learned skills traditionally denied to them, empowerment would follow, which is a means of providing women with human security, i.e. emancipating women from fear and want. Eighteen years have passed and there are different views as to whether such assumptions about increasing access to education and training have resulted in the tilting of the power balance in favor of women.
It is against this backdrop that the Jewish Distribution Committee has engaged in a project to empower Ethiopian girls by providing them with financial assistance to pursue higher education so as to bridge the gap inherent in access to higher education prevalent in many African countries. This study therefore analyzes the programme which has seen the empowerment of more than a hundred girls from low, no income or destitute families and links it with human security. This thesis argues that educating such girls is providing them with human security by enabling them physically survive and empowering them to self-sustain. The study found that, the project has contributed to providing the basis for a good number of girls to attain education and subsequently obtained employment, while others are pursuing post graduate education. It found that while some of the beneficiaries have completed their Bachelor’s degrees a very competitive job market in Ethiopia has precluded them from getting jobs leading to frustration. The study concludes that, it’s a worthwhile project and provides valuable lessons for non-governmental organizations implementing gender empowerment programmes in Africa in general and Ethiopia in particular.
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Keywords
Empowering Girls,Human security