Grant Status $0 needed

School +
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Expected Usage of Funding
Supplies, Furniture:
$1500
Labor and Salaries:
$0
Transportation:
$0
Raw Materials:
$500
Research:
$0
Administrative:
$0
Other:
$0

Profile

The More Than Me Academy is on a mission to ensure that education and opportunity, not exploitation and poverty, define the lives of the most vulnerable girls from the West Point slum of Liberia. When girls graduate, they should be able to decide what comes next.

To that end, More Than Me was founded with the hope of getting the girls off the streets and into school. Getting girls off the street is important because, according to GirlUp, more than 40% of Liberian girls ages 10-14 have never gone to school. Unfortunately, young girls out of school fall victim to the most frequently reported crime in Liberia, rape.

A boarding school is More Than Me' s ultimate vision for the girls because a boarding school eliminates the time spent at risk in the West Point community.

History

73% of Liberian children are denied an education; over 80% of them are girls. A girl denied an education, is a girl on the street; it's a girl who's exploited and condemned to underemployment. The ripple effect of this denial of her basic right is seen in the stagnation of her wages, her susceptibility to exploitation and disease, and even her children's future education.

Impact

Educating one girl can change everything. When a girl in the developing world receives 7 or more years of education, she marries 4 years later and has 2.2 fewer children. An extra year of primary school boosts girls' eventual wages by 10 to 20%. An extra year of secondary school: 15 to 25%. When women and girls earn income, they reinvest 90% of it into their families. When we invest in girls, we all win. Our goal is that every girl at MTM will be able to make choices for her life. Currently, girls are able to be in school from 7 AM to 5 PM. The boarding school would increase time spent at the school to 24/7 365 days per year, thus eliminating time spent at risk.

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