The Last Kilometer
An Anti-Dropout Campaign Targeting the Issues that Matter Most
70% of Tanzania’s population is under 24 years old. Education has always been - and will always be - the gatekeeper to economic mobility. While Primary School is free in Tanzania, only 14% of students manage to graduate High School.
The reasons for this are well-known:
Early Childhood Marriage and Pregnancy
Girls not Brides indicates that Tanzania “has the 11th highest absolute number of women married or in a union before the age of 18 in the world,” with rates as high as 59% among some tribes. This figure is only what has been reported: many tribal, ceremonial marriages exist in the grey legal area.
25% of girls aged 15-19 are pregnant, or have already had children (UNFPA). Many of these pregnancies are a result of coerced sex, or transactional sex with an older man. Girls who become pregnant are no longer allowed to attend school.
Violence Against Women and Children
Violence against women and children is a well-known fact of life in Tanzania; violence remains a mode of expression for male emotions, and the preferred method of discipline for both children and wives.
Official statistics range from 8%-78%--depending on the part of the country. However, domestic violence is commonplace, and “millions of women are being affected by various violence acts in the form of physical, sexual, psychological, as well as economic abuse and exploitation regardless of age, background, or level of education” (Tanzania Demographic Health Survey,2015-16).
Period Poverty
In Tanzania much as anywhere else in sub-Saharan Africa, limited access to proper care of and information about menstruation, known as “period poverty,” forces many young women to resort to the use of unhygienic materials—cow dung, mattresses, feathers, etc.—as a “stop gap” in the absence of sanitary towels. It also results in many girls missing 3-7 days of school a week, which results in up to a fourth of the school year.
This negatively impacts their performance and ability to complete school. Additionally, stigma and shame negatively impact girls’ sense of self-worth and self-esteem, which can also have a negative impact on their academic performance.
Mental Health
Tanzania has one of the lowest psychiatrists-to-population ratios on the planet: “0.04 psychiatrists and 0.005 psychologists per 100,000 population, and an overall total of 0.3 mental health workers (including psychologists, psychiatrists, nurses, and other mental health providers) per 100,000 population” (Depression and Research Treatment, Kutcher, 2017).
At this time there exists no community based healthcare providers in Tanzania who have been trained in the clinical capacities needed to identify, diagnose, and treat Depression in young people” (Depression and Research Treatment, Kutcher, 2017).
Our campaign is called the “Last Kilometer” because we address the issues most likely to stop Tanzanian students from being able to “go the distance” in the most important years of their education.
We address these issues through powerful, and seldom-addressed lenses: mental health, emotional awareness, healthy relationships, power, consent, and shame.
They are important drivers in human behavior, particularly in young people.
