Annual Report & Financial Statements 2007
Islamic Relief Worldwide & Subsidiary Undertakings
CHALLENGING INEQUALITY IN EDUCATION 
Education is a basic human right and provides children and young people with the skills they need to ensure they have productive and healthy futures. However, many of the world’s children, are still denied this most fundamental human right. Poverty, a lack of infrastructure, conflict and HIV all mean that around 72 million primary school aged children are currently not in school and many more only attend irregularly.
Working to meet the Millennium Development Goals, we help more children go to school, providing them with a more positive future. We do this by building new schools, training teachers, providing educational supplies and supplying children with nutritious school meals. We prioritise the needs of the most vulnerable children, including girls, those living in conflict areas and rural communities.
Providing education for nomadic communities
In Mali, very few children ever go to school and only 17 per cent of girls can read or write. In Gourma Rharous in northern Mali literacy rates are as low as 10 per cent. We work in Gourma Rharous to increase access to basic education for children who may otherwise not be able to go to school. Many children in this area come from nomadic families who move around the region according to the seasons. As the children are not settled in one place they find it hard to go to school and are often expected to work to help the family.
In 2007, we built three new classrooms and rehabilitated three more at schools in Mali. We also supplied ten schools with teaching materials and nutritious school meals, which help encourage children to enrol and consistently attend school. To help the wider community, we also provided community members with adult literacy classes.
“I have brilliant students at this school and they all have very bright futures. I enjoy being a teacher and helping children reach their potential so I work to promote education amongst people in the village.”
Muhammad, teacher, northern Mali.
Teacher training in Afghanistan
In Afghanistan years of conflict have severely damaged the country’s education system. There is a shortage of schools, equipment and qualified teachers. Although school enrolment has increased over the last few years, pervasive gender inequality makes it especially difficult for girls to go to school, a situation compounded by a lack of female teachers. Consequently the enrolment rate of primary school aged girls is half that of boys the same age and only around one in five girls can read and write.
We work in southern Afghanistan in Kandahar to improve the quality of education by training teachers and supplying teaching materials. Kandahar has some of the worst education standards in the country and suffers from a serious shortage of qualified teachers. In 2007, we provided training to over 580 teachers and 30 master trainers, who will in turn train even more teachers. Those we trained now have a better understanding of teaching methodologies, lesson planning and ways to motivate children. This has benefitted over 23,000 children in 50 schools.
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