I was honoured when my friend Holly Pavlika asked if I would partake in a tweetathon to raise awareness for 10×10 and the International Day of the Girl and educate a girl. I have a daughter, how could I not?
Of course I would join in and raise awareness for such an important and vital initiative. I am grateful my daughter has so many choices ahead of her because she is lucky to have access to education.
Can you imagine your daughter not having access to education just because she is a girl? Millions of girls around the world don’t. They face barriers to education that boys do not.
They are forced into early marriage, slavery, sex trafficking and discrimination. I can’t imagine having my daughter grow up that way.
This lack of education has huge economic impact on not just the girls, but their families, the communities they live in and nations around the world.
Studies have shown that when you educate a girl, you can break cycles of poverty in just one generation. One! That is huge!
There are so many benefits to educating girls:
- When the number of girls attending school increases by 10%, GDP increases by 3%
- When a girl attends school for seven years, she’ll marry four years later and have two fewer children
- A girl is 50% more likely to immunize her children when she is educated
- A girl’s wages increase up to 15% after receiving one year of primary education
October 11, 2012 will be the United Nations’ first ever International Day of the Girl, Join me along with several others throughout the day on twitter for a tweetathon hosted by Momentum from 9am to 9pm, to raise awareness and raise our voices – just follow the hashtag #IDG2012. There will be several hosts throughout the day. I will be tweeting at 11 am until noon. Wouldn’t it be wonderful to give all girls the same opportunities to education that our daughters have? Educate Girls – change the world!
About the 10×10 Campaign
10×10 is a global action campaign dedicated to raising the value of a girl — in her home, community, nation, and around the world.
10×10 began through a collaboration of the award-winning journalists and storytellers at the Documentary Group and Paul G. Allen’s Vulcan Productions. Together, they recognized the power of girls’ education to alleviate global poverty–and committed their storytelling abilities to raising awareness of the issue.
Driven by powerful storytelling, 10×10 combines an inspiring feature film with an online and on-the-ground movement to spread the message that investing in girls is not just the RIGHT thing to do, but the SMART thing to do.
In addition to raising awareness of the value of a girl, the 10×10 campaign drives action and resources to support girl-focused programs in the developing world. These funds support NGOs working on the ground to provide resources like scholarships, health care services, and critical life skills training.
10×10 brings together dedicated journalists, writers, business people, policy leaders, students, teachers, elected leaders, humanitarians, activists, philanthropists, musicians, celebrities and people like YOU – who believe that investing in girls is vital for global development.
For more information about the 10×10 campaign please see here.
