In his TED talk, Ziauddin Yousafzai Pakistani father activist for female education and Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, speaks to his daughter's success,
“It is not what I did but rather what I didn’t do. I didn’t clip her wings.”
March is Women’s History Month. This month we celebrate Malala and the many women like her that have changed the face of the women's rights and empowerment movement around the world. There is one key consensus amongst all academics, researchers, leaders, and innovators, the key to more equity and equality lies in the education of women. What's more, the education of women may play a key in ending many other global issues like world poverty and world hunger.
Statistics show that global education rates mirror rates of poverty.
This is not a coincidence. For every year of high school a girl completes, her income increases by 15-25% which positively impacts the GDP of a country. Countries that have less-educated women are losing between 15-30 trillion dollars in a lifetime of productivity and earnings. Educated women are more likely to enroll their children, girls, and boys, into school increasing their chances of higher earnings per capita. Educated women are also more likely to invest in their families and their children giving the next generation, more opportunities for growth.
At the 2005 World Summit, 200 world leaders came together and advocated their support of gender equality. They agreed that giving women the opportunity to become educated and work was essential to advance world peace, security, and global development. Challenges preventing women from acquiring a quality education are still widely experienced all over the world. Society cannot eliminate poverty, patriarchy, and corruption unless the female portion of our population is given equal self-development opportunities. However, gender equality has become an important point of focus and as awareness of the benefits of women’s inclusion in educational environments and the workforce increases so does the momentum of this movement.
LIFE facilitates projects that benefit women across the world.
LIFE constructs schools in the Middle East and Africa, as well as distributes books, educational materials, uniforms for students and teachers in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Gaza, Ghana, Haiti, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Syria, Kenya, and the West Bank. The benefits of the successful distribution are numerous, easing the financial burden of families enabling them to send their girls to school, giving children autonomy, confidence, and control over their learning environments, equalization of students’ abilities regardless of gender. Women and girls are a fierce source of possibility. Join us in building a brighter tomorrow by investing in girls’ education today.
“One child, one teacher, one book, one pen can change the world.”- Malala Yousafzai
