More than six months ago my friend Corinne sent through a link to a website called The Girl Effect, which claims that by investing in girls in the developing world, we make an incredibly effective contribution to eradicating poverty, creating thriving communities, and slowing the spread of AIDS. The organisation backs up this statement with some pretty strong statistical evidence:
- When a girl in the developing world receives seven or more years of education, she marries four years later and has 2.2 fewer children.
- An extra year of primary school boosts girls’ eventual wages by 10 to 20 percent. An extra year of secondary school: 15 to 25 percent.
- When women and girls earn income, they reinvest 90 percent of it into their families, as compared to only 30 to 40 percent for a man.
- Research in developing countries has shown a consistent relationship between better infant and child health and higher levels of schooling among mothers.
When I checked out the Girl Effect video I agreed wholeheartedly with the premise that girls and women are huge catalysts for positive social change. I witnessed this with my own eyes in the IDP camp in Kenya, which is why I worked with several womens' groups to set up businesses and why I fundraised hard to collect school fees for more than a dozen of the camp's teenage girls. The hope of the local community is that by giving these girls an education they can overcome poverty and improve the lives of those around them. The girls we assisted certainly grabbed the opportunity with both hands so here's hoping the effects will be significant and long-lasting!
This post is part of a worldwide blogging campaign in honor of Universal Children’s Day on November 20.
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