My education MATTERS

The United Nations general has proclaimed January 24 as the international day of education, to celebrate the key role of education in peace and development.

We had a privilege to visit Shaloom School for an interview with young girls about their educational life.We met young brilliant girls,intelligent and ambitious but who face several challenges :family,cultural, and mostly financial.

At entrance Adjuwa was the first to welcome us with great enthusiasm. seeing the positivity she radiated , everyone could deduce that the young girl was the happiest(stable) of all. the simple question of who she was and where her parents lived suddenly changed my impressions about adjuwa. Sitting on that  chair, I couldn't hold back tears at Adjuwa's fascinating story.  Adjuwa is a 12 year old girl, she  comes from a family of 6 children where she is the eldest. her mother is a farmer and her father died when she was 9.they live in extreme poverty that his mother is not able to take sustain their needs epecial of  education. She promised her mother to study and become a doctor. I asked her a question to know why she wants to become a doctor, she answered me: " because i want to treat people who do not have money to pay medical bill , i don't want people to die anymore because they don't have money for medical treatments. l also want to  help mom and my siblings" Adjuwa is the only one in her family to go to school, her siblings drop  out school because of financial mean.They now  help their mother farming. I asked her another  question to know how she will pay for medical sciencies. She answered me: "My mother told me that Adjuwa is a Swahili name which means God knows everything and my mother keeps reminding me that." From Adjua's story, I could identify myself and look back everything I went through. I always dream of becoming a politician to represent vulnerables . I also never have the opportunity to study for what I want to become.

we young women share many common stories and almost same backgrounds. The question is how long are we  going to remain in this routine: deprived of our rights, unfair treatment, forced marriage, unwanted pregnancy, rape, violence, etc?

Although the Democratic Republic of the Congo has made significant progress in education sector, many young people don’t have access to education.  UNICEF report that 3.5 million(27%) of children in age of studying are not in School .

Without inclusive and fair quality education, we won’t be able to achieve gender equality and break the poverty circle

Education is a human right, a public asset and a public responsibility.

Education is the strongest weapon to transform the future.