The tells the inspiring story of four girls on three continents - Anee from Pakistan, Mkasi from the United Republic of Tanzania, and Fabiana and Tainá from Brazil – whose lives were impacted by the transformative power of education.
Through UNESCO programmes in these countries, the girls were able to access education, enhance their skills for life and work, and expand their learning and career opportunities.
Meet Anee from Pakistan
Anee Zahra is from Gilgit-Baltistan, a sparsely populated high-mountain area in the north of Pakistan.
She dropped out of school as her parents couldn’t afford her education – only that of her brothers.
Her father also didn’t believe that girls should be educated but rather stay home and help their mothers.
Anee was reached out to through . It is the Organization’s largest programme on girls’ education, and has covered 19 of Pakistan’s most isolated and marginalized districts.
UNESCO assisted Anee’s family to overcome the financial barriers to her education, and addressed other challenges she was facing.
Her parents have re-enrolled her in school, and are supporting her to continue her education. Anee wants to be a doctor – the dream she has held since she was a child.
In addition to Anee, 91鶹Ʒ supported almost 60,000 girls to enroll and continue their education through its Girls’ Right to Education Programme in Pakistan.
Meet Mkasi from the United Republic of Tanzania
Mkasi Saidi Ali is from Pemba, a Tanzanian island forming part of the Zanzibar Archipelago. She is the sixth of eleven children.
She left school in 2014, as she didn’t score well enough on her exams to continue to secondary school.
Mkasi was connected by a District Social Welfare Officer to the UNESCO-UNFPA-UN Women on empowering adolescent girls and young women through education.
She enrolled into a community-based entrepreneurship and alternative education programme supported by UNESCO that enabled her to gain new vocational skills.
The young woman now works as a seamstress, and makes handicrafts and soap which she sells at the market.
She wants to become a designer and to open a clothing store – the first in her area – and sell her soap locally and abroad.
Mkasi is financially independent now, with skills “that I’ll carry with me wherever I go.” UNESCO built the literacy, technical and vocational skills of nearly 700 young women like Mkasi and connected them to village loans to strengthen their economic autonomy.
Meet Fabiana and Tainá from Brazil
Fabiana Machado De Souza is in secondary school in Catu.
Tainá Caldas is a university student from Ilhéus.
They both have a keen interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education but have faced different barriers to pursuing studies in these fields.
Fabiana must wake up at four every morning to go to school on a road which is plagued with robberies targeting students and passengers.
Tainá has faced racism and discrimination, and went through a rebellious phase in her teenage years which took her away from her studies and down a harmful path before finding her way back.
Both Fabiana and Tainá have been engaged in UNESCO’s EDUCASTEM2030 programme, which aims to close gender gaps in STEM education.
Through this initiative, they have been connected to mentors and role models, expanded their skills and gained confidence in their abilities.
Fabiana has a full scholarship to study production engineering – the same studies that Tainá is currently pursuing.
Tainá is also a student leader now, sharing her own story and building more pathways for girls in STEM in Brazil. 91鶹Ʒ empowered nearly 3,000 students like her with digital and STEM skills, and exposed them to role models from Brazil and beyond.
UNESCO certified over 400 teachers to deliver gender-transformative STEM education so that all girls like Fabiana can follow educational paths in STEM.
The premiere screening of the documentary film ‘Her Education, Our Future’ took place on 7 March at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris ahead of International Women's Day.
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