Scholarships for Success: Educating Parents and the Community

	USAID helped local NGOs create a network of dormitories for rural Moroccan to continue their education and complete middle school in supervised away-from-home lodging while creating an attitude change in rural parents to see the value of schooling their daughters

Since its creation in 1999, the “Scholarship for Success” program has made it possible for over 800 girls from rural Morocco to go to middle school. 

As is the case for many students in the rural areas of Morocco, these girls live in villages that don’t have middle schools.  So, with the aim of keeping girls’ in school, USAID joined forces with the NGO Comité de Soutien à la Scolarisation des Filles (CSSF).Created by a small group of dedicated volunteers, CSSF creates dormitories that house and care for rural girls so that they can go to middle school and beyond.

Working through small local NGOs, CSSF has discovered that in the process of housing girls, they are at the same time educating their parents and the community about the importance of continuing girls’ education and the critical role of local associations.

By funding and coaching partner NGOs, CSSF has been successful in developing organizations that are strong lobbyists for their own scholarship funds and are now independent.  They have not only successfully managed the dormitories, but have also tutored the girls and enhanced their self esteem.  Moreover, they have gained the trust of the local population.  The support and continued existence of the girls’ homes in small villages is often a cause around which various local partners unite.

These small local associations have convinced municipalities, local public and private entities, the Moroccan Diaspora in France, and even parents to serve as funding sources for these homes.  While the parents’ incomes have not increased, the importance they place on their daughters’ education has grown and they are now modestly contributing to the cause.