EDUCATIONAL EMPOWERMENT:

About two thirds of the illiterate adults in the world are female. Higher levels of women's education are strongly associated with both lower infant mortality and lower fertility, as well as with higher levels of education and economic opportunity for their children. Education is one of the most important means of empowering women with the knowledge, skills and self-confidence necessary to participate fully in the development process. Closing the gender gap in education is a development priority. Education is important for everyone, but it is especially significant for girls and women. This is true not only because education is an entry point to other opportunities, but also because the educational achievements of women can have ripple effects within the family and across generations. Investing in girls' education is one of the most effective ways to reduce poverty. Investments in secondary school education for girls yield especially high dividends.

SFWS supports a variety of educational programs, from literacy projects to curricula development with a focus on reproductive and sexual health. Because of the sensitivity of these issues, the focus and names of the educational programs have gone through a number of changes over the past decades.

SFWS providing better healthcare for the poor and the homeless so that they can get and keep regular and gainful employment and so that their children can attend school often enough to get benefit from education and break the poverty cycle.