Yes, that is me! 🙂
When I was 12 years old I wanted to be a Judge then a Forensic Pathologist…and then I changed my mind a million more times after that. The support of my parents and the resources we had made it possible for me to dream big. I can’t imagine a world where that would’ve been taken away from me…a world where I couldn’t go to school for fear of being shot or because my parents couldn’t afford simple necessities like shoes for me to walk to school in.
Today, more than 62 million girls are out of school. It truly breaks my heart to know that somewhere out in the world right now a little girl can’t achieve her dreams because of the circumstances that she’s in and that she has no control over.
This is what it means if today we help let girls learn:
- 1 % of increase in women’s secondary education can boost a country’s per capita income growth rate by 0.3%.
- Educating women means reducing poverty.
- Girls with higher than 7th grade education marry an average of 4 years later reducing the number of child marriage.
- A child born to a literate mother is 50% more likely to survive past the age of 5.
Learn more about Michelle Obama’s “Let Girls Learn” initiative here and tune in on Wednesday, October 12th at 9PM and watch We Will Rise: Michelle Obama’s Mission to Educate Girls Around the World, about the challenges facing girls around the world.