In research for Education in Tanzania, I’ve been finding some really powerful statistics about Africa, and it seems to mean that it all leads back to primary education. That’s why I believe in our cause so much- because I think education is the key to helping poverty and the AIDS epidemic in Africa. Read on…

• Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region in the world where poverty has increased in the past 25 years.
• 32 of the world’s 38 heavily indebted poor countries are in Africa.
• Half the population of Africa lives on less than US $1 a day.
• Slums are home to 72% of urban Africa’s citizens.
• Primary school enrollment in African countries is among the lowest in the world.
• 33 million primary school-aged children in Sub-Saharan Africa do not go to school. 18 million of these children are girls.
• In Sub-Saharan Africa, only two-thirds of children who start primary school reach the final grade.
• Although literacy rates have greatly improved in Africa over the last few decades, approximately 40% of Africans over the age of 15, and 50% of women above the age of 25 are illiterate.
• There is an average of 40 pupils per teacher in sub-Saharan Africa, but the situation varies considerably from country to country. In many countries, it is more than 60 to one.
• Africa loses an estimated 20,000 skilled personnel a year to developed countries.
• Average life expectancy in Africa is only 46 years.
• There are an estimated 5,500 AIDS deaths a day in Africa.
• AIDS decreases in villages where there are primary schools.
• In Uganda, a child who quits attending school is three times more likely to be HIV positive later on in life than a child who completes basic education.
• HIV/AIDS is likely to claim the lives of 10% of teachers within the coming five years, and 20% of school-age children will be AIDS orphans.