Scholarships Primary Education Santa Elena SUMMARY
This project aims to support  access to quality basic education for 170 girls and boys. The project involves informing communities about the rights of girls and boys to an education, mobilizing, recruiting and selecting the children that are most at risk and therefore eligible for a scholarships, which will be granted upon conditions of full support and commitment of the children and their parents/caretakers. During the school attendance the children will be coached, mentored and supported to avoid drop out and successfull completion.    
This 3-year project is implemented in Santa Helena district in Ecuador and started 1 April 2015. Despite the fact that access to education in Ecuador has improved in the past years, thousands of people remain excluded, and more particularly minorities which represent 21.6% of the population and include girls and teenage girls from poor households, indigenous, montubian or afro-Ecuadorians. 13% of indigenous girls and boys, 14% of afro-Ecuadorians, and 15% of montubian do not have access to basic education, compared to 4.4% at national level.

In the Province of Santa Elena, 13.8% of children work. Close to 7% of girls between 5 and 14 remain with no access to formal education, and 38.7% of girls and 31.6% of boys aged between 15 and 17 are not schooled. In order to address this gap, the government is offering free education and is providing uniforms, school lunch and school books. However the coverage remains an important problem, and for poor households, these incentives are not sufficient to keep their children at school. Moreover, for students in their three last years of high school, the cost in terms of transport and time increases because of limited numbers of secondary education centers which are usually located far from their communities.

Socio-economic and cultural patterns of gender inequality exacerbate the existing situation of exclusion which go against the well-being and academic performance of girls and teenage girls. Girls are often asked to go and work or to stay and take care of the house instead of going to school. In Ecuador an average of 31% of adolescent girls do not attend secondary school. This number rises to 44% in indigenous areas, to 42% for afro-Ecuadorian populations and 33% for montubian populations. An estimated number of 149.572 girls aged between 5 and 17 years old, cannot study as they work at home. The latter represents 13% for montubian girls, 15% for afro- Ecuadorian girls and 17% for indigenous girls . The project will increase and secure the number of children that have access to education and are able to complete it in Santa Helena district by 2018.
Surrounding communities are being informed that both boys and girls have a right to an education and are being made aware of the social, cultural and economic benefits for communities of educated women. Community assessments will then identify children with the potential to be granted scholarships and rank these children accordingly. The children that qualify for scholarships will then be given funds equal to the yearly amount of the scholarships, the registration fees will have to be presented. Plan´s local office will do what’s necessary to make sure children are able to go to school and monitor their attendance too. The latter includes a follow-up with their families, the verification of grades and ensuring every child completes the school year. The scholarship project will support 170 girls, boys and adolescents that are at risk of exploitation, subjected to violence, or discriminated against or excluded for reasons of gender, ethnicity or mental or physical disabilities. Access to basic education for girls and boys in santa Helena District is a three-year project that will give better access to an education for 170 girls and boys and help them complete that education. The project initially involves informing communities about the rights of girls and boys to an education then selecting the children that are most eligible for the scholarships that will be granted. The necessary funds will then be provided to the families of the eligible children. Finally, the selected children will be mentored and coached and their progress will be monitored. Children and teenagers who have not completed their basic education or have not obtained high school diplomas have more difficulty finding a decent job and are more likely to be underemployed or exploited. The latter makes it more difficult for them to develop into healthy and productive adults who contribute to the well-being of their community. Ensuring that the selected children complete their basic education will increase their self-reliance and their later ability to support their families and communities.