It Costs So Little                    

Making a Difference

Compassion Beyond Borders' average cost of funding a schoolgirl in the developing world is less than $60 a year--a fraction of what other international agencies spend. CBB's costs are lower because it operates differently:

• CBB's projects are administered by local grass-roots people, many of whom, such as nuns and priests, do not need compensation from CBB since they are supported by their organization. Other project directors are dedicated volunteers who have devoted their lives to helping the poor and, with only a couple exceptions, do not need compensation.
  


• CBB educates as many girls as possible, rather than providing an expensive private school education to a few girls.
  


• CBB recognizes that, with few exceptions, even the poorest families can give some support to educating their daughters.
  


• CBB gives minimal scholarships--enough to get a girl into school. If additional funding is necessary to keep her there, this is given on an individual basis--and only when needed.
  


• So, with few exceptions, CBB does not give full scholarships--that is not necessary. CBB gives what is necessary--but no more--and thereby educates far more girls with the funding that is available.
  


• CBB recognizes that before a girl can go to a university, she must first complete primary and secondary school, which is far less expensive that university studies. Completing high school is as great an accomplishment for the poor in the developing world as completing college is in the U.S.

It Costs So Little

The cost of educating a girl in the developing world depends upon local needs, the level of schooling, and international exchange rates. Annually,

$60 is CBB's average cost of educating a girl in the developing world

$70 buys a goat and three chickens and rents a communal garden for a schoolgirl's mother ill with AIDS in Kenya

$80 sponsors a girl at a Montessori school in an abandoned garbage dump in Mexico

$100 trains a garbage dump woman in a non-violence workshop in Mexico

$120 educates a high school girl orphaned by AIDS in Kenya and Uganda

$150 schools a Tibetan refugee girl in India

$250 provides a primary school scholarship to a Mayan girl in Guatemala

$300 gives an out-of-school girl pre-nursing training in India

$350 underwrites an education center for 25 girls in India

$600 furnishes required notebooks to 50 schoolgirls in India

$700 sends a girl to a teachers' training college in India or Kenya

And:

$80 supplies a bicycle for a girl to get to middle school in India

$160 meets the cost of an entire primary school education for a girl in Afghanistan