More than 13,000 poverty-stricken adolescent girls will have access
to a special education and training program over the next three
years, which is expected to help them create a better life for
themselves with their own hands.
The program, with a budget of US$3.7 million from the British
Government, was officially launched yesterday. It is the first
partnership project between the Chinese and British governments in
the field of social development.
The project focuses on the educational and skills requirements of
the poorest adolescent girls in six counties of Southwest China's
Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, and Northwest China's Gansu
Province.
It
also integrates training with advocacy of gender rights and life
skills to increase the girls' awareness of gender inequality and
cut away negative social attitudes.
Catherine Nettleton, a counselor with the British Embassy, said the
partnership represents an "important" collaboration between the two
governments to promote shared objectives of poverty reduction and
increased equality between men and women.
"The empowerment of women is an essential precondition for the
elimination of poverty," she said.
Although China has made notable improvements in the status of women
since 1949, women in China, especially among the poor, still face
inequalities in economic development, and access to education and
health services, according to Nettleton.
Gu
Xiulian, vice-president of the All-China Women's Federation, agreed
with Nettleton that investment in education for girls in the
countryside is the "single most effective way to reduce
poverty."
Gu
said women are already the main laborers of rural China, with more
and more men in villages choosing to take temporary jobs in large
cities.
"Training one girl in production skills is the most direct way to
help one rural family escape poverty," said Gu.
She said past studies have found that women with even a few years
of basic education have healthier families and are more likely to
work their way out of poverty and send their children to
school.
(China
Daily November 7, 2002)