This Christmas, will you help open the door to a rescue centre for a girl like Emily?
Girls like Emily, who live in extreme poverty, face many dangers. School is often the one place they feel safe, but not for long. Girls as young as nine are forced out of education and into marriage and motherhood.
Real change happens when people like you choose to act. VSO volunteers bring communities together to keep girls like Emily safe and learning. Donate this Christmas to ensure no girl stands alone and no dream is out of reach.
Funding for international development has fallen sharply in recent times.
This Christmas, please send a gift in solidarity and with hope. We urgently need to support girls like Emily, who are in danger.
In Karamoja, Uganda, people keep cattle and grow food, but many live in extreme poverty. Conflict and climate change are making day-to-day survival even harder.
Girls have been attacked on their way to school or collect water. They also face violence at home. For many, school is the safest place to be, but girls as young as nine can be forced out of school to marry. Many families see little value in educating girls whose role is generally to work in the home, before marrying and becoming mothers at an early age.
Emily was 15 when she was forced to get married and become the second wife of an older man. She refused to give up on her dream of going back to school, even when she found she was pregnant. But she stood alone until VSO volunteers sparked change in her community.
How you can help this Christmas
Donate to VSO this Christmas and you could help provide girls like Emily with a safe place to stay, a chance to go back to school, and support to rebuild their lives.
VSO volunteers like Alfred are helping to set up rescue centres in schools across Karamoja, where girls can go when they’re at risk of early marriage. They’re training teachers to support girls like Emily, who have often experienced violence.
Emily has now been living in the rescue centre for two years with her son, Shedi. Trained by VSO, Emily’s teachers provide engaging lessons that inspire the whole class to keep learning. While Emily is in school, Shedi is in nursery. An education will give them both a safer, brighter future.
But without the help of people like you, Emily would have had nowhere to go and no one to support her to rebuild a life. A child herself, she would still be trapped in a forced marriage without the skills to provide for herself or her son.
It’s urgent.
This is a critical time. So far, VSO is working in 193 schools in Karamoja to help girls stay in school or return, but there are 400 state schools in total. Your help is urgently needed to ensure that there is an education and a safe place for any girl at risk of being forced out of school and into early marriage and motherhood.
This Christmas, please donate to help give a girl like Emily a safe place to stay, an education and support to rebuild their life.