One of the worst impacts of poverty is illiteracy and its vicious cycle of churning out more poverty. Low levels of education are usually driven by factors such as child labour, parental illiteracy and unemployment. The literacy rate of Nigeria is estimated at just 59.6% (CIA World Factbook (2015-12-31). Nigeria alone has 10.5million children ‘out-of-school’ and 60% of those are girls (UNICEF) with Niger and Sudan having the lowest levels globally. Cultural and religious expectations further put a strain on the female child in particular, in accessing basic education where it is generally expected that girls should marry early and raise families. Access to education is a fundamental tool in fighting poverty and vital to meeting the Sustainable development goals (SDGs). JWCA is therefore priorities this including tackling the gender disparity. We therefore have a slightly but not exclusively focus on girls.
