When I was a young child, my parents instilled in me the idea that I would go to college. It was just non-negotiable. As my son gets older, I hope to impress upon him the same objective. This little boy is the light of my life and I want the very best for him. And I know that getting as much education as possible will guide his way.
Living in the United States, we sometimes take our education for granted. Our kids complain about getting up early in the morning, coming home and doing homework, standardized testing, the list goes on and on.
What they don’t realize (or fully understand) is that there are children in this world who would give ANYTHING to be able to participate in all of that, but can’t.
This is Anzida. She is 14 years old and had been enrolled in school until the second grade when she was forced to stay home to help take care of her family. Fortunately, the organization CARE has created an accelerated learning program in India, called the Udaan School, that is designed specifically for girls who were involuntarily removed from school at an early age. In this picture of her, she answered the sentence, “Education inspires me to…” with “teach my community members.”
She was also asked what her biggest challenges were and she said that her family still does not want her to continue her education. Can you imagine??
I know that women are undervalued in the US, but at least we are allowed to go to school.
CARE is a global humanitarian organization that fights poverty by empowering girls and women. I have teamed up with them to help get the word out about their efforts. Did you know that 45% of adolescent girls in Malawi that have not gone to school become pregnant? That number gets drastically reduced to 4% when they receive a secondary education.
Think that’s crazy? In some countries, they lose more than $1 BILLION a year simply because they didn’t educate girls to the same level as boys. So, I mean it when I say an education can make a world of difference.
We want to help inspire these girls, like Anzida, to continue to fight to get their education. Send them a message of hope letting them know that their fight is not in vain.
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