Her education, her right: Win’s story

Win is 12 years old. She lives in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, in one of the world’s largest refugee settlements. Her days are filled with school, religious studies and helping at home. Her daily routine might sound mundane, but behind it lies a much harder reality.

Like many Rohingya girls her age, the challenges that Win navigates are ones that most children elsewhere never face. Limited access to information, safety concerns after dark and social norms that can abruptly end a girl’s education. Then, there is the driving force behind these challenges: debilitating poverty.

Win’s already seen what can happen to someone when these forces combine. When one of her closest friends suddenly stopped going to school, Win struggled to understand why. It wasn’t because her friend failed a class or moved away. She had simply reached an age that, in their community, often signals the end of a girl’s schooling.

This left Win with a burning question that no 12-year-old should ever have to contemplate: why should a girl be denied the chance to learn simply because of her age and gender?

It’s a heart-wrenching question the global community can’t—and shouldn’t—ignore. Worldwide, 133 million girls are shut out of school, a tragic loss of human potential. But it’s also a loss that costs the global economy trillions of dollars per year. When will the world agree that denying girls their right to learn is a price too high to pay?

The stark reality for girls out of school

Education is a fundamental human right, not a privilege awarded to a certain few. And yet, that right remains out of reach for millions of girls around the world. The 2026 UNESCO Global Education Monitoring Report tells us that the number of children out of school has risen for the seventh year in a row, now up to 273 million worldwide. What does this mean for women and girls?

• Progress has slowed down in almost every region since 2015.

• Roughly 133 million girls are currently shut out of school.

• Globally, out of 739 million adults that lack basic literacy skills, nearly two-thirds of them are women.

While the number of boys out of school is higher at 140 million, this doesn’t mean that opportunities for girls have grown over the years. Adolescent girls, especially, are more vulnerable to pressures that rarely affect boys the same way. These pressures can interfere with a girl’s education or stop it altogether:

• Early marriage

• Gender-based violence

• Caring for younger siblings

• Doing unpaid domestic work

• Cultural and social norms once a girl reaches puberty

In parts of South Asia, where Win is from, teen girls aged 15–19 are three times more likely to be out of school, training and employment. Win’s friend, and countless other girls, likely fell into this age range when she disappeared from the classroom.

Why education is the turning point

Today, over 610 million people are living in extreme poverty. While education is every child’s right and the best way to break free from the cycle of poverty, many families and cultures tend to favour education for boys, shutting girls out of schools to become wives and mothers.

Each year, an estimated 12 million girls are married before the age of 18, a decision often driven by devastating poverty. Most are often forced to leave school as a result. Once a girl marries, her formal education typically ends for good, along with the chance to break free from poverty. Win didn’t want to end up like her friend—a bleak future because of being forced out of school.

World Vision’s PEACE project was created to help girls like Win advocate for themselves. Twice a week, she attends sessions at the Tulip Center, a child-friendly space in Camp 13 where she learns age-appropriate lessons about topics rarely discussed openly in her community:

• Health

• Hygiene

• Sexual and reproductive health

• Personal rights

For a girl living in a settlement camp where information is limited and safety is a daily concern, this kind of program does more than fill a knowledge gap. It tells her that her right to education isn’t just a matter of fairness—it’s her birthright.

An education that multiplies

Unlike her friend, Win’s story doesn’t end with her dropping out of school. Thanks to the PEACE project, her story continues to unfold.

The knowledge she gains at the Tulip Center doesn’t stay there. At home, Win encourages her siblings to wash their hands, practice good hygiene and take care of their health. Now, she’s her family’s trusted source of information—a 12-year-old advocate for education and well-being in her community.

Win is an example of how education empowers girls to change their own trajectory. And in doing so, they can often help lift their families out of poverty and kickstart change in their community.

This is the philosophy that shapes much of World Vision Canada ’s approach to gender equality. We partner with communities to design programs that address the specific barriers holding them back from making real progress—like the cultural norms that keep girls out of school. Supporters like you to enable us to:

• Facilitate programs like the PEACE project where children and youth learn about their rights.

• Show parents that their daughters have equal rights to education as their sons.

• Help women gain financial literacy and entrepreneurial skills through savings groups and small business training.

• Partner with community faith leaders against harmful cultural norms and practices, like child marriage, female genital mutilation, gender-based violence and other forms of gender inequality.

• Build clean water and sanitation facilities in schools so girls can go to class even during their period.

With changes like these in place, girls no longer have to ask, “Why should a girl be denied the chance to learn because of her age and gender?” Instead, girls can take their rightful place in the classroom and learn alongside their male classmates.

The bottom line

Making sure that all kids, particularly girls, have access to education isn’t just a feel-good cause—it’s a sound economic choice too. The global cost of school drop-out and lack of education amounts to $10 trillion a year. But that’s not all.

The World Bank estimates that “limited educational opportunities for girls, and barriers to completing 12 years of schooling, cost countries between $15 trillion and $30 trillion in lost lifetime productivity and earnings.” When the world invests in girls’ education, everyone wins:

• Girls who finish high school are three times less likely to marry before turning 18.

• With more women in the workforce, countries could see their GDP grow by up to 35 per cent.

• Families are healthier and better supported when women contribute to the household income.

For Win, this is what having equal access to education is all about. It’s not just to fulfill her dreams and improve her own future. It’s about sharing what she learns with her siblings at home. It’s about changing the hearts and minds of people in her community, so they make better decisions for their daughters. And it’s about opening the doors for the next generation of girls in Camp 13, so they have a say in the decisions that affect their lives.

Get involved

You can help girls stay in school with a gift to World Vision Canada’s Where Most Needed fund. Your gift is flexible support that helps children get what they need most—whether that’s after-school clubs, school supplies or skills training to enter the workforce.

You can also help protect a girl’s right to education by becoming her sponsor. As a child sponsor, your monthly gift transforms a child’s community by addressing the root causes of poverty in their area. And, for every child sponsored, four more benefit from our community-led programs.

Join us in making sure girls like Win get to keep asking their questions, keep raising their hands and keep proving what happens when a girl is finally given the chance to stay in the classroom.