Girls in Education

Education is Empowerment 

Currently, around the world there are 130 million girls who are not being given the opportunity to go to school and two-thirds of the 774 million illiterate people in the world are women. Unless we act, these numbers do not show any signs of slowing down.

Women are peacemakers. It is obvious that groups such as the Taliban in Afghanistan (who are trying to stop girls from attending school) feel threatened by the idea of girls being educated. Scared by the idea of women in powerful positions, fearful of opening these minds to an alternative peaceful future as it is not in the interests of men who try to subdue women to allow girls to have an education.

 I’ve been extremely lucky to have had access to a fantastic education that has given me huge amounts of opportunity, it has given me drive, showed me what my passions are and empowered me to strongly believe I can do anything I set my mind to. I often despair when I hear people around me stating how much they hate school or how much they don’t want to be there. Everyone has the right to dislike things but it is important to have perspective. Sometimes school is unpleasant or hard or boring but it is important that those of us who have had a relatively easy ride compared to some, recognise our privilege and the opportunities we’re given. We need to be ready to stand up for those who can’t and shout it from the rooftops.

Education provides a huge number of opportunities for young women that go far beyond simply being able to attend higher education or become more employable. The Statistics on the impact female education has are staggering. Educated woman are less likely to die in childbirth and are less likely to get married at an early age. It has been estimated by the UN that if all women had a secondary school education, child deaths would be cut in half, saving nearly 3 million lives. Educated mothers are more likely to understand the importance of practising good health and hygiene and how to meet children’s nutritional needs. I invite anyone to look at these statistics and make the case that we should not be doing more to end this problem. The issues we see today affecting young girls such as child marriage and malnutrition in some of the poorest countries could be lessened and perhaps even solved through an education being offered to all.

Of course,  there is not an overnight solution, It is not as easy as walking girls into school and sitting them down with a textbook. We need to work on funding, building more schools, supplies, teacher training, setting up government initiatives and most importantly changing attitudes and starting a trend of empowerment.

In a speech to the Rising Global Peace Conference in November of 2016 Mala Yousafzai’s father said"Not believing in Girls, in their potential, is a social sickness. The only panacea is education". There is nothing I wholeheartedly agree with more, it is a global problem hat we can only solve by working together. 

Education provides women with not only the opportunity to survive but to thrive.

If you want to learn more about empowering girls through education I highly recommend the book ‘I am Malala’ by Malala Yousafzai or a Ted Talk given by Michelle Obama in 2009: https://www.ted.com/talks/michelle_obama

If you want to take action and join the fight to support girls and young women in school visit 
One.org   where there are some amazing opportunities to take part.