I never thought that the coronavirus, which I was reading [about] in newspapers in January and February, would create such havoc around the world and that my life would be affected so much.”
Thousands of young people my age are studying at home who don’t have access to a computer and internet ... or don’t have a quiet place to concentrate.”
I went to school but now I'm sitting at home.”
“Our goal should not be a return to the way things were but instead a renewed commitment to the way the world should be, a place where every girl can learn and lead.”
— Malala Yousafzai
Over the next three years, Malala Fund will focus our work on the following objectives to address the immediate and long-term implications of the pandemic on girls’ education.
In Brazil, our strategy centres on monitoring state and national education budgets, establishing protocols for safe school reopenings and addressing violence and abuse against girls.
Campanha Nacional pelo Direito à Educação (Campanha)
Centro de Cultura Luiz Freire (CCLF), Centro Dom Helder Câmara de Estudos e Ação Social (CENDHEC) and Centro de Mulheres do Cabo (CMC)
Instituto de Estudos Socioeconômicos (INESC)
Movimento das Mulheres Trabalhadoras Rurais de Pernambuco (MMTR-PE)
Nossas
Odara
Campanha will advocate for two policies that will ensure girls can reenrol in school and access quality education free from gender-based discrimination. The organisation will train girls to educate their communities about the importance of these policy changes and advocate for their implementation. Campanha will also publish research on the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on Brazil’s education system.
This joint project will raise awareness about the impact of COVID-19 on girls’ education in Pernambuco and develop recommendations to state and municipal education departments and councils for safe school reopening. Trained girl activists will also monitor municipal governments’ plans for addressing the pandemic in schools.
INESC will track federal and state education budget allocations to ensure they dedicate adequate resources to the pandemic response and develop strategies for how to effectively advocate for girls’ education during a health crisis.
MMTR-PE will conduct assessments of eight public schools in rural Pernambuco state on their reopening conditions. The organisation will also train girls and teachers on safety protocols and advocate for improved public policies before in-person classes resume.
Nossas will train Brazilian girls to build their own social campaigns to target decision-makers and advocate for change in their schools, with a focus on how COVID-19 has impacted their education.
In Salvador and Recife, Odara will hold workshops, publish stories and collect data to address racial and gender-based violence — which has increased during the pandemic — and improve Black girls’ enrolment and retention rates.
In Brazil, our strategy centres on monitoring state and national education budgets, establishing protocols for safe school reopenings and addressing violence and abuse against girls.
In Ethiopia, we are working to reduce social and economic barriers affecting girls’ enrolment and retention rates by advocating for gender-responsive education funding and policies and providing girls with alternative learning, reenrolment and catch-up support during and after the pandemic.
Center of Concern
Center for Justice
Network of Ethiopian Women’s Associations (NEWA) with Amhara Women's Associations (AWA), Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) and Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA)
Siiqqee Women's Development Association (SWDA)
In 16 secondary schools, Center of Concern will help students learn during school closures, aid girls in returning to school after they reopen and improve retention rates. They will also work to reduce gender-based violence and inequality in Ethiopia through awareness-raising measures.
As rates of abduction, forced marriage and gender-based violence increase during the pandemic, Center for Justice will work in the rural communities in Dire Enchini district to protect girls and ensure they reenrol or remain in school.
In a joint project, Network of Ethiopian Women’s Associations (NEWA) will work with three of its members — Amhara Women's Associations (AWA), Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) and Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) — to offer girls catch-up programmes during and after the pandemic and conduct an enrolment campaign when schools reopen. NEWA will also train girls to lead safe space clubs and help their peers access counselling and learn about sexual reproductive health, gender-based violence and early marriage. At the national level, NEWA will also advocate for gender-responsive education funding and policies to make it easier for girls to complete their education.
SWDA will provide academic and psychosocial support to 350 girls ages 14-18 at risk of dropping out to help them reenrol once schools reopen, offering specialised learning materials for girls with disabilities. SWDA will also open safe space centres for girls to discuss issues like sexual health and gender-based violence.
In Ethiopia, we are working to reduce social and economic barriers affecting girls’ enrolment and retention rates by advocating for gender-responsive education funding and policies and providing girls with alternative learning, reenrolment and catch-up support during and after the pandemic.
Our work in India focuses on girls’ mental and physical health and safety during school closures so they can return to school. We will also ensure reopening plans address specific needs for girls, help them catch up on missed lessons and equip teachers with the tools and skills they need to return to the classroom.
Breakthrough Trust
CARE India
Child Rights and You (CRY)
HAQ: Centre for Child Rights
Student Partnership Worldwide India Project Trust (Restless Development)
Council for Social Development (RTE Forum)
Urmul Rural Health Research and Development Trust
Breakthrough will help the most vulnerable adolescent girls in India reenrol in school and catch up on missed learning. The organisation will train girls to identify and address different forms of gender-based discrimination, building girls’ agency, self-esteem, leadership and negotiation skills so that they can advocate for their rights and needs.
CARE India will ensure that middle schools in Nuh district in Haryana have safe and secure learning environments that promote social-emotional well-being and help marginalised adolescent girls continue their education. The organisation also plans to help the state and district education departments develop norms and guidelines to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in schools.
CRY will teach marginalised girls in Lakhimpur district in Uttar Pradesh academic and life skills. The organisation will also promote gender sensitivity among parents and prepare schools to respond to girls’ safety concerns and educational needs during and after the pandemic.
CSEI will partner with community organisations to create learning opportunities for Dalit and Muslim girls and help them gain self-confidence so they can advocate for themselves within their families and communities.
HAQ Center will create safe spaces for girls where trained community workers and teachers will encourage them to continue their education and help them build mental health resilience. The organisation also plans to conduct an analysis of national government teacher trainings and propose improvements so that teachers can better support students’ psychosocial needs.
Restless Development will work with teachers and schools in Bihar to implement a gender-responsive curriculum that teaches girls confidence, negotiation and resilience. The organisation will also support back-to-school campaigns led by young people and create mechanisms for girls to hold leadership accountable to their commitments to girls.
RTE Forum teaches girls leadership skills so they can advocate for girls’ education in their villages and schools as well as in state and national forums.
Urmul Trust will provide girls with quality online educational resources, connect them with open schools in their areas and offer community-based support to help them reenrol. The organisation will educate community members on the importance of girls’ education and the opportunities digital learning solutions provide. Urmul Trust will also train a group of young activists who will work as digital learning ambassadors.
Our work in India focuses on girls’ mental and physical health and safety during school closures so they can return to school. We will also ensure reopening plans address specific needs for girls, help them catch up on missed lessons and equip teachers with the tools and skills they need to return to the classroom.
Our work in Nigeria focuses on securing national and state funding for education, ensuring school reopening plans are gender-inclusive and protecting the mental wellbeing of girls during a period of school closures so they are able to return.
ACE Charity
Civil Society Action Coalition on Education for All (CSACEFA)
Hallmark Leadership Initiative (HALI)
Women's Rights Advancement and Protection Alternative (WRAPA)
ACE Charity works with teachers to develop and broadcast distance learning radio programmes, which the organisation is piloting through the end of the school year. Each 30-minute segment covers literacy, numeracy or STEM and airs on select stations three times a week in Abuja, Kano, Kaduna, Adamawa and Borno states.
The CSACEFA — a coalition of nongovernmental organisations, teachers’ unions and women’s groups in Nigeria — will lead public awareness campaigns about girls’ right to education to ensure communities support girls returning to school after the pandemic.
Based in northeast Nigeria, HALI will help displaced girls in Borno state access alternative learning programmes and reenrol in school once it is safe. The organisation will also work to strengthen education systems so they are more resilient to future shocks.
WRAPA will work in schools in Abuja to create a model for gender-responsive reopening plans, including accelerated learning programmes to help girls catch up on missed lessons and prepare for postponed exams.
Our work in Nigeria focuses on securing national and state funding for education, ensuring school reopening plans are gender-inclusive and protecting the mental wellbeing of girls during a period of school closures so they are able to return.
In Pakistan, we are working to prevent rollbacks in education funding and promote digital learning in communities and schools.
AzCorp
Centre for Economic Research in Pakistan (CERP)
Idara‐e‐Taleem‐o‐Aagahi (ITA)
Indus Resource Centre (IRC)
Mechanism for Rational Change (MERC)
Orenda
Pakistan Youth Change Advocates (PYCA)
Mera Sabaq Learning Systems (SABAQ)
AzCorp will make its popular “Sheeba and the Private Detectives” audio series more widely available to children aged 6-13 in hard-to-reach areas so they can continue learning during school closures.
CERP will expand access to its digital learning platform, IlmExchange, allowing girls from low-income households in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab and Sindh to learn from home. Once schools reopen, CERP will help teachers adapt their lessons based on students’ learning levels in the platform and implement a remedial education programme to help them catch up. The organisation will also use data from the platform to map students’ learning losses as a result of the COVID-19 crisis so that schools and teachers can address these educational gaps.
ITA will provide home-based learning, catch-up classes and psychosocial counselling for the most marginalised adolescent girls. The organisation will also provide schools with necessary health, safety and hygiene information as well as the technological resources to ensure the protection and safety of students. ITA will also build teachers’ capacity to create gender-responsive curriculums, use education technology and teach life skills.
IRC will work with 30 schools in Jamshoro district, Sindh to train adolescent girls to speak out and enable school staff and community members to create more girl-friendly learning environments so girls enrol and remain in school.
By advocating to build computer labs in girls’ schools, MERC seeks to normalise girls’ computer and internet usage. It will also select 100 “Change Ambassadors,” young women who will participate in the organisation’s mentorship programme and learn skills in advocacy, data-driven campaigns, community mobilisation and gender equity.
Orenda will add curricula for more grade levels to its digital learning app, Taleemabad, so that children unable to attend school can study at home.
PYCA will launch an intensive 15-month multi-media campaign encouraging provincial and federal governments to maintain spending for girls’ education despite the economic consequences of COVID-19. Through print, digital and social media, the organisation will reach almost four million individuals.
SABAQ will develop and test a model that will allow girls’ public schools in Sindh to use technology-assisted teaching and learning at the primary level. By developing this model with the Sindh education and literacy department, SABAQ will help support distance learning, address educational gaps and improve learning outcomes for girls.
In Pakistan, we are working to prevent rollbacks in education funding and promote digital learning in communities and schools.