Let Girls Learn is celebrating its first anniversary. The global education initiative, started by the US Government, President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama has reached around the world to get 62 million girls left out of school back into the classroom.
Many of these 62 million girls desperately want to attend school but are kept out for various reasons. Girls face economic barriers like high school fees. In some places they are held back by traditions that oppress women. Sometimes schools are simply too far away that it is difficult or unsafe to travel there daily.
These girls left out of school become more vulnerable to things like HIV/AIDS, early or forced marriage, and other forms of violence.
A quality education gives girls a better chance to earn a decent living, raise a healthy family and in general provide an improved quality of life for herself and her family.
“According to a McKinsey study, if women participated like men in the economy it would add 28 trillion USD to the global economy,” said Nancy Lee, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Millennium Challenge Corporation at a recent Global Poverty Project event.
It is important to the world that every girl be given the chance to attend school and get a quality education. That’s why the Let Girls Learn initiative is crucial.
Teaming up with the Peace Corps, USAID, the State Department, and Millennium Challenge Corporation the US is able to make a difference for girls around the world. The initiative has had a lot of successes. One example is Peace Corps volunteers creating schools, assisting girls to get to the school and, most importantly, stay in school.
Another example comes from USAID and the work that The Advancing Youth Project (AYP) is doing in Liberia.
A great change in girls education is only possible with the support of global citizens. Individually your voice is powerful. When your voices joins the larger group of global citizens, a force that cannot be ignored is created.