The Girls’ Education, Mentorship and Skills (GEMS) project empowered girls and young women in Zimbabwe through education, vocational training, and protection services.
In rural Zimbabwe, where economic hardship and deeply entrenched gender barriers collide, girls face a perilous crossroads. Many are forced to abandon their education, some because of teenage pregnancy[i] or early marriages, others due to families prioritising sons’ schooling. Distant schools, unaffordable fees, and the silent epidemic of sexual violence[ii] further sever their chances.
In communities like Nkayi and Mangwe, where jobs are scarce and vocational training is often non-existent, girls who drop out of school face a lifetime of menial labour or dependence. It’s against this backdrop that the GEMS project intervened, not just to provide temporary support, but to dismantle the systems trapping girls in cycles of exclusion. Here, a diploma isn’t just paper; it’s armour against child marriage. A sewing machine isn’t just a tool; it’s a lifeline for a young mother disowned by her family.
This is the reality GEMS confronted: one where every solution had to address both immediate survival and the deeper roots of inequality.
[i] Nearly one in five girls
become mothers before they reach the age of 19.
[ii] A third of girls
experience abuse before adulthood.
