There are five SOS Children's Villages in Bangladesh, five SOS Youth Facilities, four SOS Hermann Gmeiner Schools, four SOS Vocational Centers, four SOS Social Centers and four Family Strengthening Programs

June 14, 2010: Improved education for girls in the impoverished nation of Bangladesh has greatly reduced its maternal mortality rate. Between 1990 and 2008, the rate of Bangladeshi women dying in childbirth dropped from 724 deaths per 100,000 live births to 338.

That dramatic progress was reported in a study recently published in the British medical journal The Lancet. Bangladesh is still far from meeting the UN Development Program Millennium Development Goal of 144 maternal deaths for 100,000 live births by 2015.

But as scientist Shams El Arifeen of the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, told IRIN news service, the decline is significant, and sustained progress "must be noted and must be continued."

Key to Better Lives: Educating Girls -- an SOS Children's Villages Priority

Incentives for girls to go to school that the Bangladesh government began offering in 2001 have played a crucial role in lowering the maternal death rate. The offer of free education up to 12th grade, combined with the spur of food for education, brought a spike in enrollment. UNICEF figures show that between 1991 and 2005 the number of girls enrolled in Bangladesh's secondary schools rose from 1.1 million to 3.9 million.

SOS Children's Villages, an organization that raises children without parental care in 132 countries, has long understood the link between girls' education and their chances at a healthier and happier life. Girls who attend SOS schools around the world -- especially in countries where females usually do not have the opportunity to sit in a classroom -- make better life choices. Like educated girls everywhere, they are more likely to secure jobs, delay marriage, and have fewer children.

Despite Bangladesh's efforts to educate girls, one survey shows that school dropout rates for boys and girls increased between 2002 and 2006, from 33 percent to 47 percent. The reason, according to IRIN, is inadequate school facilities and lack of teachers.

SOS Schools are Magnets for Local Children

To sustain the gains Bangladesh has made in cutting maternal death rates, the government will need to invest more in the nation's school system. Meanwhile, SOS Children's Villages, in Bangladesh since 1973, is helping educate children through the four schools it operates in addition to its five SOS Children's Villages.

SOS schools are open to neighborhood girls and boys who would otherwise have no other options in a nation where illiteracy is still common.

Help a girl in Bangladesh secure a future through education. Donate to SOS Children's Villages.