With GTL support, 2,155 East African women have attended and graduated from secondary school, since 1998.
The national graduation rates for girls in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania are 49%, 27%, and 14%, respectively. The US graduation rate is 85%. GTL’s graduation rate is 95%.
GTL scholars highly value the opportunity for a secondary school education. In East Africa public education is not free. Secondary schools cost money, typically $700 a year. For GTL scholars,
One hundred GTL alumnae gathered for one-day meetings in 2019 and another 32 gathered in 2023. The alumnae with additional education and higher paying employment were better able to attend the one-day meetings. Nevertheless, their surveys provide a rich data set on the education, employment, and community engagement of GTL scholars.
- Among the findings;
- 80 percent of GTL alumnae were either attending or had graduated from post-secondary education, and
- About two-thirds pursued courses of study in medicine/health, business, or education.
- GTL alumnae work in a variety of settings: in businesses, as teachers in secondary schools, in non-profit organizations, and in hospitals, as well as being self-employed business owners.
- Among GTL graduates are: a pediatrician, several lawyers, a university professor, the owner of a safari company, and an agricultural extension agent.
- Educating GTL girls has strong ripple effects throughout their communities. Virtually all GTL alumnae reported that they either provide their communities with information on such topics as public health, translate documents for people who do not know English, and/or help people fill out job applications or other documents.
- Of those attending alumnae events in 2019, 75% noted that “my community looks to me as a leader”, including the most recent secondary school graduates.
Having a secondary education is transformative. Graduating from secondary school in 2015, Lydiah, now a mother of two, wrote: “My community is happy to know that their girl/daughter is working in the pharmacy in the local hospital. Indeed, the support by GTL to pay for my secondary school education, put me on the path to becoming a pharmacist: it has been a blessing.”
Another alumna, an agricultural extension officer in drought-ridden northern Uganda, describes her new life as follows: “It gives me so much joy because I will be able to transform the way farmers are doing their farming, and this will enable increases in their incomes and production.”
GTL girls not only improve their lives but are crucial in building and supporting their families and communities.
Diana Sophie Achieng graduated with a first class Honors in Statistics in 2023.
Diana comes from Western Kenya and her family struggled to put her and her siblings through school, she however put her best foot forward and excelled in both her secondary studies at Sega, she graduated in 2016 under a GTL Scholarship Award.
" I would like to appreciate GTL who really and greatly contributed to my academic achievement."
Diana has set the pace for her younger sisters as she navigates her place in the career place in Kenya. She is collating data on new students, continuing students, and other data for Growth Through Learning. We are excited to have her on board to support our mission.
We believe that East Africa can build on successes and improve access to schools that have seen primary school age children, out of school, decrease from 32% to 8% between 2002 and 2011. We work to support girls go beyond primary school and make sure that those successes reach girls in most underserved regions in rural areas.
