The Girl Effect

The Girl Effect is one of my very favorite non-profit organizations. It's all about giving adolescent girls the education and tools they need to raise themselves (and susequently their families) out of poverty. Girls are uniquely capable of raising the standard of living in the developing world. They are the most likely agents of change, but they are often invisible to their societies and the media. The Girl Effect is trying to change this.
Why girls? Check out the research:

-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. (United Nations Population Fund, State of World Population 1990.)

-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. (George Psacharopoulos and Harry Anthony Patrinos, “Returns to Investment in Education: A Further Update,” Policy Research Working Paper 2881 [Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 2002].)

-The total global population of girls ages 10 to 24—already the largest in history—is expected to peak in the next decade. (Ruth Levine et al., Girls Count: A Global Investment & Action Agenda [Washington, D.C.: Center for Global Development, 2008].)

-Out of the world’s 130 million out-of-school youth, 70 percent are girls. (Human Rights Watch, “Promises Broken: An Assessment of Children’s Rights on the 10th Anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child,” http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/crp/promises/education.html [December 1999].)

These are just a few of the statistics that show how important educating young girls is. To see more facts and stats, go here.

The argument of The Girl Effect is this: When a girl reaches adolescence, she comes to a crossroads. Things can go one of two ways for her:
One: She get educated, stays healthy and HIV negative, she marries when she chooses to whom she chooses, raises a healthy family, and has the opportunity to raise the standard of living for herself, her family, her community and her country.
Two: None of these things happen. She is illiterate, married off young, isolated, pregnant and vulnerable to HIV. She and her family are stuck in a cycle of poverty.
With education and micro loans, The Girl Effect is working to give young girls the power to change their lives. And untimately, change the world. Go to http://www.girleffect.org/ to learn more and see how you can get involved.