Literacy and numeracy skills acquired in primary school, and refined through secondary education, promote personal productivity and provide an individual with the capability to succeed in an increasing technical and global economy. Research shows that education enhances economic, political, and social well-being. Schooling helps people gain employment and contributes to higher wages. In addition, it reduces insecurity by proving a person with the capacity to adjust to the changing needs of the global marketplace. Illiteracy limits a person’s ability to understand and invoke their legal rights and restricts their ability to participate in the political arena, and hence, influence government policy. 
There is much evidence that more educated women have a greater voice in household decisions leading to lower fertility rates, and increased living standards. Moreover, infant mortality rates fall and children’s health is better when mothers are more educated, and mothers with greater schooling live longer. According to Amartya Sen, “The difference that basic education can make to human life if easy to see, and is readily appreciated by even the poorest of families.” However, families in many parts of the world have limited resources making it very hard for them to send their children to school, especially girls who often must do chores so other family members can work. Indeed, in Senegal, where the average family lives on less than $2 a day, it is a struggle to cover the costs of schooling. Many children, especially girls, do not have a birth certificate which is needed to enter secondary school because the document is too costly to purchase--to register a child costs $25. ELEVEate is dedicated to helping families overcome the financial obstacles that prevent their female children from obtaining a secondary school education and to allowing more girls an opportunity to fulfill their dreams.
