PEAS is not only committed to empowering girls in our schools. We are committed to empowering female leaders across all levels of our organisation. We know female role models inspire girls in our schools, and give them the confidence, drive and belief that they too can go on to achieve great things.
Join us as PEAS celebrates International Women’s Day, where we shine a light on extraordinary female leaders such as Laura Brown, CEO at PEAS. “PEAS students inspire me. So many of them face extraordinary barriers to getting a secondary education and they have persisted,“ says Laura.
In this blog, hear why Laura is inspired by PEAS students and her proudest moment in her role as CEO at PEAS.
Who inspires you and why?
PEAS students inspire me. So many of them face extraordinary barriers to getting a secondary education and they have persisted. Across our network of schools, there are thousands of individual inspiring stories. One that sticks with me is a young mother who advocated to enrol in the boarding section of her PEAS school for her final exam year. To do this she had to convince her husband and community that she, as a woman and as a young mother, deserved the same chance to succeed as her peers. She aced her exams and is now pursuing her dream of becoming a medic. I’ve met her daughter, and she is extremely proud of her Mum.
Why are you committed to promoting girls’ education?
I care about girls’ and boys’ education. But my own family story, my time as a teacher in an inner-city girls’ school in the UK, and my experience of PEAS rural Ugandan and Zambian contexts has taught me that adolescent girls face gendered barriers that make accessing quality education harder.
What’s been your proudest moment in your role as CEO at PEAS?
There are so many moments that make me proud to be PEAS CEO. I was proud recently when some of our female students were invited to State House and effectively and eloquently petitioned the President of Zambia on issues pertaining to girls’ education. I’m proud when I see students clutching hard won exam certificates at the end of secondary school. And I feel especially proud (and quite emotional!) when I see teachers in our classrooms who were once PEAS students themselves and usually the first in their families to go to secondary school. It’s such a tangible example of how secondary education transforms lives.