Karachi's 'Footpath School' offers hope to street children

The 'Footpath School', in Karachi provides a free, basic education for children in need and prepares them for their futures by teaching them to become self-sufficient .

Last year, 22.6 million kids between the ages of 5 and 16 were out of school in Pakistan with only 6 million others in that age group attending classes regularly.

TRT World’s Staci Bivens has more.

International Day of the Girl

October 11 marks the day of the girl child, an initiative by the United Nations that aims to bring to the forefront challenges girls all over the world face when receiving an education. 

In South Sudan, 73 percent of girls aged six to 11 are not in school; in the Central African Republic there is only one teacher for every 80 students; and in Niger only 17 percent of girls and women are literate, a report by ONE Campaign found.

The report found exceptions, however, such as Burundi, one of the poorest countries in the world, that outperformed 18 wealthier countries when it came to girls' education.

Thousands of girls are kept from school due to poverty, early marriage, dangers in travelling to class and having too many chores at home, according to the United Nations' children's organisation, UNICEF.

In Ethiopia, two in every five girls marry before their 18th birthday while just one percent of girls in Burkina Faso complete secondary school, according to the report.

Initiatives to end violence 

World leaders launched a half-billion-dollar effort to end violence against women and girls, a crime suffered by one in three in their lifetimes, at last month's UN meeting.

The effort will fund anti-violence programs that promote prevention, bolster government policies and provide women and girls with improved access to services, organizers said.

It will take particular aim at human trafficking, femicide and family violence, they said.

A third of all women experience violence at some point in their lives, and that figure is twice as high in some countries, according to the United Nations.

"Gender-based violence is the most dehumanizing form of gender oppression. It exists in every society, in every country rich and poor, in every religion and in every culture," Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, head of UN Women, said as the United Nations held its annual General Assembly.

"If there was anything that was ever universal, it is gender inequality and the violence that it breeds against women," she said.

In other forms of violence, more than 700 million women worldwide were married before they were 18, and at least 200 million women and girls have undergone female genital mutilation in 30 countries, according to UN figures.