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In Africa, school isn’t the only job many young women have. After class, they cook, clean, help their parents sell goods on the street, fetch water or care for younger siblings. Balancing schoolwork with these responsibilities can be exhausting. Some students fall behind — others drop out entirely. We spoke with a girl from a public school in Ghana. Here’s her story. #GirlZOffMute #The77percent

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00:00How difficult is it combining both school work and in-house chores?
00:12Some girls in my community are facing more challenges, more than anything,
00:16because some of them have to go and sell early in the morning,
00:19some too have to help their parents sell food and other things.
00:22So I think it's been difficult to cope both school and house chores together.
00:26But for me, one thing I find most difficult is that I have to wash utensils
00:29before I set off to school, and sometimes it's going to make me be late.
00:33Do you think parents and teachers understand the pressure that comes with combining both?
00:38Some teachers do not understand because they feel weird as students feel lazy to come to school early,
00:43but also when they come home, our parents think we oversleep,
00:46so they have to come and wake us up to get to school.
00:49So I think teachers and also parents do not understand what we kids are going through,
00:54combining both house activities and school activities together.
00:58What keeps you motivated to go to school despite all the challenges that you mentioned?
01:02And is it the same thing for girls your age?
01:05Looking at how my parents are struggling with the paying of my school fees
01:09and also today advising me to focus on my books, it motivates me more to do more than they expect from me.
01:15And also basically due to the dream I have in future to become a fashion designer,
01:21I think they are motivating me more to take my books and academic work seriously.
01:26Now coming back to your school, what do you like about the school and what annoys you most about it?
01:31Talk about facilities in my school. I wish we had a bigger playing ground for volleyball,
01:36and also to I wish we had an ultra-modern library in which the students can go in and learn,
01:42and also to have a Wi-Fi that would help us search for some vocabulary words we do not understand.
01:48Our school doesn't have CCTV cameras in her classroom,
01:51so sometimes some people can just bash into their classrooms and take things that does not belong to them.
01:57What would you like to tell teenagers your age who are also in the school?
02:01Advise teenagers of my age in my community take their books and academic work seriously
02:06to help them achieve their dreams and aspirations in life.
02:11Girls my age face a lot of challenges, combining both house chores and then school work.
02:17Do you find the same issue with your students?
02:19We do have challenges. Sometimes they are late to school, you ask them and they say that they were washing,
02:24they are doing that, and most of them stay with their relatives, not their biological parents.
02:33So because of that, you are there to be helped.
02:37So sometimes some of them they sell things in the night, so they don't sleep on time.
02:44So these are some few challenges and also financial, financial challenges.
02:53Do you think girls are truly given the equal opportunity when it comes to education?
02:58Or do you think they are still made to prioritise domestic work over schools?
03:03Girls are given the same opportunities.
03:05Unlike before, you see that there were disparities, and by now they are given the same opportunities.
03:12Most of them, we've been encouraging them to take lessons, science, other lessons seriously and others.
03:20So they are given the same opportunities.
03:22What initiatives are put in place to encourage girls to stay in school?
03:26And what do you suggest could be done to keep more girls in school?
03:29For now, we've assigned role models to them, to look up to these role models.
03:34Use our life stories also to tell them that they do stay in school.
03:38So in the future, I think it's encouraging.
03:41What advice would you give to girls my age who find themselves where they don't have proper access to education?
03:47Parents should take responsibilities seriously and also we shouldn't give up.
03:55It doesn't matter whether you are pregnant or there are people who got pregnant and they continue with their education.
04:01And we should take good care of the girls.
04:04We should give them, help them financially so that they don't fall to prayer to other young men or something like that.
04:15Thank you so much for joining me.
04:17Thank you so much for joining me.
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