D'Amuge Fund
Francis Ojaale Dayamba
Issue date: 11/17/08 Section: Features
I am a civil engineering sophomore at Clarkson. I was born in Albany, New York, and at the age of eight my father accepted a job in Benin, West Africa where I obtained my International Baccalaureate. Benin is a country bordered by Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Niger, and Togo. It is approximately five times the size of Vermont with a population roughly equal to that of New York City.
Benin nurtured me into the person I am today and I intend to return the favor by establishing the D'Amuge Fund. The motivation for this initiative is my experience in an environment with an inescapable social injustice, where a large percentage of the youth are born into impoverished situations which make it agonizingly difficult for them to achieve their potential.
The goal of the D'Amuge Fund is to re-route the paths of Beninese children by providing them with education, thus increasing their chances of succeeding in life. This article describes the problems faced by children in Benin and how I intend to be of assistance to them.
There is a direct correlation between the level of education of a people and the development of their country. The literacy rate in Benin is 34% compared to America's 99%; also, Benin's Human Development Index (HDI) is ranked 161 out of 177 in the world compared to America which is ranked twelfth.
Solving the problem of lack of education is a complex task with many factors contributing to the issue. Some of these factors include the lack of government investment which leads to teacher strikes and a lack of qualified teachers, a culture which favors domestic work over education for females, and poverty. According to my research, the annual expenses per child from first to second grade amounts to $439, third to fourth grade amounts to $620 and fifth to sixth grade amounts to $715. Ironically, the average Beninese citizen lives on an estimated $625 annually (IMF 2007). This means that the education of a single child is worth approximately two-thirds more than the total income of a single parent. In Benin, the total fertility rate is 5.6 (UNICEF 2006); this suggests that more students are malnourished and lack the scholastic equipment necessary to succeed, leading to a high primary school drop-out rate.
Benin nurtured me into the person I am today and I intend to return the favor by establishing the D'Amuge Fund. The motivation for this initiative is my experience in an environment with an inescapable social injustice, where a large percentage of the youth are born into impoverished situations which make it agonizingly difficult for them to achieve their potential.
The goal of the D'Amuge Fund is to re-route the paths of Beninese children by providing them with education, thus increasing their chances of succeeding in life. This article describes the problems faced by children in Benin and how I intend to be of assistance to them.
There is a direct correlation between the level of education of a people and the development of their country. The literacy rate in Benin is 34% compared to America's 99%; also, Benin's Human Development Index (HDI) is ranked 161 out of 177 in the world compared to America which is ranked twelfth.
Solving the problem of lack of education is a complex task with many factors contributing to the issue. Some of these factors include the lack of government investment which leads to teacher strikes and a lack of qualified teachers, a culture which favors domestic work over education for females, and poverty. According to my research, the annual expenses per child from first to second grade amounts to $439, third to fourth grade amounts to $620 and fifth to sixth grade amounts to $715. Ironically, the average Beninese citizen lives on an estimated $625 annually (IMF 2007). This means that the education of a single child is worth approximately two-thirds more than the total income of a single parent. In Benin, the total fertility rate is 5.6 (UNICEF 2006); this suggests that more students are malnourished and lack the scholastic equipment necessary to succeed, leading to a high primary school drop-out rate.
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