Mr. Paul O'Brien:

The Deputy raised a large number of issues. The issue of distance from school is a significant one, particularly for girls in many rural places in Africa. There is generally a local or village primary school nearby but, as is the case in Ireland, there are fewer secondary schools and students must travel greater distances to get to them. In many cases, doing so is unsafe. We have been trying to build hostels for girls because if they rent rooms in towns, they are in great danger from men who may predate on them. As Sr. Brigid stated, we are trying to establish boarding schools. That may seem extreme, but in some cases it is probably the best way to keep girls going to secondary school safe and ensure they can progress.

The Deputy raised the issue of poverty and the significant dilemma parents may face. Ideally, solving the poverty issue would solve a major portion of the issue of the priority allocated to girls' education. In order to convince parents to allow girls to attend school, we offer to pay for scholarships, which is quite expensive but it recognises the value of girls.

I refer to the importance of mothers and the issue of girls becoming pregnant. Last year, I was in Guinea-Bissau, where I encountered this issue. I tried to remember, during the time when I was a child, who got the blame when a girl got pregnant. Generally, the boy should get the blame because he is the father, but it was usually the mother who got the blame. That was the case in Guinea-Bissau; the mother was blamed if her daughter got pregnant. Mothers were doing a truly amazing thing, namely, they took their daughters to the local clinic to access contraception because they knew the girls were sexually active and wanted to protect them in order that they could continue to go to school. That highlights the availability of contraception in local areas. It may seem extreme, but mothers tend to be far more practical and much better able to protect their daughters and ensure they can continue to go to school.