Ethiopia: Gender barriers to education · Global Voices
Sokari Ekine

Barriers to girls attending school in Ethiopia and elsewhere in Africa are numerous.  Friends of Ethiopia comments that the lack of toilet facilities, privacy and water also act as a barrier to young teenage girls attending school…….”Fatimah is facing the onset of puberty, and with it the realities of menstruation in a school with no latrine, no water, no hope of privacy other than the shadow of a bush, and no girlfriends with whom to commiserate. Fatimah is the only girl of the 23 students in her class. In fact, in a school of 178 students, she is one of only three girls who has made it past third grade.”