Educational Programs Are the Pebble

We have doubled-down on our focus in helping children get access to education, including advanced education. We see education as a pebble that creates a ripple effect – raising community well-being across time and space.

Educational programs reduce poverty by increasing job skills, boosting earnings by roughly 10% for each extra year in school, and improving family health. They give people the tools needed to secure stable work and break intergenerational cycles of hardship.  While illiteracy in the Global South, particularly in Sub-saharan Africa, has been on a steady decline, illiteracy remains a primary barrier to overcoming systemic poverty, and the limited number of graduates with advanced education means that there are fewer professionals to produce community wealth and be resources for others. In general, there are fewer doctors, nurses, dentists, skilled teachers, engineers, or skillful business leaders to improve standards and conditions of living for others they might serve or mentor.

Economic Growth and Jobs

• Higher Pay: Each additional year of schooling raises a person’s future earnings.
• Better Access: Diplomas and basic skills unlock jobs that pay a living wage.
• Business Skills: Literate adults can run small businesses, keep records, and secure loans. 

Health and Community Well-Being

Generational Impact: Parents who value schooling create safe home-learning environments that help their kids graduate.

Better Health: Education teaches proper nutrition, hygiene, and disease prevention.

Family Stability: Educated women tend to have children later in life and lower maternal mortality rates.

It is a vicious cycle, as poverty reduces educational opportunity, and reduced education increases poverty. Impoverished families often have to choose between sending their child to school or providing other basic needs. Countries across sub-Saharan Africa, like Sierra Leone, are where the world’s poorest children reside. Recognizing the long term benefit of increased literacy in the general population, they have made a concerted effort to abolish school fees. But, even if families do not have to pay tuition fees, school comes with the added costs of uniforms, books, supplies, and/or exam fees..

The good news is that the ratio of students completing lower secondary school (middle school – junior high) increased in the Sub Saharan region from 23% in 1990 to 42% in 2014, however that is far behind the global ratio of 75%.