In Cultural Shift, Girls’ Education Becomes Community Priority
In mid-2006, Hasanly village in the Masally region of southern Azerbaijan joined USAID's Community Development Activity program, which promotes civic participation by working with communities and local governments to help them prioritize, plan, and implement projects that will generate income and revitalize economic infrastructure. The program funds community-level projects based on their social and economic impact, sustainability, broad-based citizen participation in identifying and implementing the project, and community, government or other contributions.
Following a series of trainings conducted by USAID implementing partner CHF, the Hasanly Community Development Council (CDC) carried out needs assessment and community surveys for road rehabilitation and electric transformer projects. Initially, gender-related matters were not at the forefront of identified issues.
In March 2007, Kristine Herman, a CHF-sponsored gender specialist visited 14 villages in the region to observe the gender situation and make recommendations to enhance gender-participation. After working with Herman, the Hasanly CDC identified women's issues as one of their highest priority responsibilities and decided to begin by addressing girls' low school attendance.
First, the CDC arranged a meeting for parents and teachers to discuss low attendance and ways to deal with this problem. Community members discussed some of the root causes of low attendance in grades 5-11, such as financial difficulties and lack of parent-teacher interaction. There was extensive dialogue about the lack of emphasis on the importance of secondary education for girls, based on the cultural notion that they are destined to become housewives.
The mobilization continued with concerned parents, teachers, and active community members discussing the issue in public venues and visiting families door-to-door, culminating in another community-wide meeting. One parents affirmed that “after talking with CDC members, parents, and teachers, I now understand that for the sake of my daughter's future, it is more important for her to go to school instead of working out in the field during school time.”
Two weeks into the awareness campaign, girls' school attendance reportedly increased from roughly 46 percent to 76 percent. School Director and CDC leader Vezir Huseynov related these results to an Azeri proverb that says that “the strength of a unified community is stronger than a river torrent.” To continue the progress that has been made, the community plans to hold regular forums for parents and teachers to discuss school issues.
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| A group of Hasanly school girls assembled in the school yard waiting for their classes to start |
Hasanly CDC members discussing the girls’ school attendance issue during their regular CDC meeting |
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