Past Rotary D 2420 (Turkey) Governor Murat Celik recently made us aware that school girls in Kosovo are in a disadvantaged position compared to boys.  Murat is currently responsible, as the R.I. President Rep, for the non-district Clubs in Kosovo, Albania and Macedonia.  The following email is from the Rotary Club of Prishtina in Kosovo:
“Many municipalities and schools in Kosovo have drawn our attention to an urgent problem of premature ending of schooling, especially among the female population. After finishing 9 years of school (compulsory education), a large percentage of girls don’t continue their education on a secondary level. The main reason is a lack of financial means in their families, many of which have several children and one or both parents are unemployed (in many cases through no fault of their own) or simply don’t earn enough to support the education of all their children.
 
As traditional values are still very much present here and male children are in a “privileged” position, in most cases boys are given a chance to continue their education and girls are not. Another reason for this problem is in many cases there is a great distance from the home to the secondary school, and paying for bus tickets every day is a big financial burden for them.
 
A “scholarship” in the amount of 50 € (Euros) a month would cover transportation costs and provide a snack and thus enable one school girl to continue her education for a year.
Nine Rotary Clubs in D 5890 contributed $9,600 to fund the continuing education for another year for twenty three of the most needy and deserving girls.
Thank you to Past President Judge Linn Slattengren of The Rotary Club of Prishtina in Kosovo which will administer the funds and arrange for reports to be sent from the girls to our Bill Davis who will forward the reports to the nine clubs.
 
Many thanks to the following Clubs for their contributions:
Sugar Land
Memorial Spring Branch
Baytown
Galleria Area
Brazosport
West U
Humble
Bear Creek Copperfield
Brazos River
- See more at: http://portal.clubrunner.ca/50025/Stories/assisting-girls-in-kosovo-to-continue-their-education#sthash.gaWsbNUl.dpuf