The "Girls' World" initiative: the cradle of the first launch

The "Girls' World" initiative was established by the end of 1998, and at that time education in Yemen suffered from a major shortcoming, as illiteracy rates reached 63% - the largest percentage of which fell on girls, as males had better internal and external educational opportunities compared to girls who were denied these privileges for many reasons. A study confirmed that Yemen is one of the countries that has failed most in providing educational opportunities for girls, as the education parity index between the genders is low. For every 10 males who enroll in basic education, there are 8 females, and it decreases further in secondary education, where 6 females enroll in secondary education, for every 10 males.

 

On this basis, and before the summer of 1998, a meeting in the capital, Sana’a, brought together Karen Merberg, “the wife of the former Dutch ambassador in Sana’a” and Dr. Antelak Almutawakel. They disscussed about the challenges which are facing girls to obtain the right for education, and their urgent needs to hone skills in the basics of English language, as it is a tool contact with  around the world, and they both volunteered to teach  girls English in their homes in a very small number. During the bilateral meeting, they proposed to expand their experience, since many girls need (to get language and life skills education), and in conjunction with that, the Dreams of  Birds Kindergarten was rented, and it was called the "Girls' World Initiative", and it was entirely devoted to teaching girls the English language.

 

And because a large percentage of Yemeni society, being a conservative society, does not like mixing of genders , especially in closed classes, the initiative was to establish a suitable and safe place for girls from conservative families, whose positives were reflected in the influx of many girls to register in it, in addition  providing free seats for girls from families with limited incomes , while other seats are for  girls who can pay for a small amount of the fees. Although the turnout to learn English was low at that time, the number of girls who came to  classes during the summer of 1998 exceeded seventy girls.

 

It is worth noting that the "Girls' World Initiative" was established voluntarily, with the self-efforts of the two main founders (Mirberg and Almutawakel), without obtaining the lowest percentage of the return on the paid seats, yet they paid part of the operational costs as personal contributions, while the girls' fees were allocated to pay rent costs Initiative building. In conjunction with the launch of the initiative, many volunteers who currently represent activists in the human rights and civil fields joined it, including Zubaydah, Asmahan Al-Tawqi, Hana Al-Shami, Amal Al-Kebsi and Abeer Ishaq, in addition to Dr. Gabool Almutawakel, who worked as a volunteer in the administrative field of the initiative with its simplified and limited structure for girls' registration and the financial management of educational fees.