I know I'm extremely privileged. I was born to a family that valued education, because we were privileged enough to have it and see it work in generations past. I'm so privileged, that I was hardly aware that 65 MILLION girls around the world are missing out on school. This is a multi-faceted issue, and I'm not proposing that I can fix or explain it in this blog post. But I do want to break some things down so we can do something about it.
Sixty-five million people is equivalent to the entire population of the United Kingdom, the 22nd largest country in the world.
I'm sure you've heard of Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani girl who was awarded the Nobel Peace prize for her memoir of her story of being shot on her way to school. Her work to bring awareness to the inequalities in education for girls has been illuminating the past few years. There are political, economic, and social reasons that girls are prevented from getting an education, and they are all imperative to solve.
Education does not just serve the educated individual. One educated individual has a great impact on her community. A mother who has been educated is twice as likely to send her own children to school. Her children will be 50% more likely to survive past age 5 if she is literate. And economically, she will earn 20% more in her lifetime, stimulating her local economy.
Please read more about Malala's story and learn how you can support the education of women throughout the world. I know I will.
