Empowering Girls In India
"Courage, sacrifice, determination, commitment, toughness, heart, talent, guts. That's what little girls are made of." -Bethany Hamilton
Today, October 11, is designated by the United Nations as the International Day of the Girl (IDG). The point is to give the world an entire day to focus on the plight of girls everywhere and ways of empowering them. When you consider the sheer magnitude of this issue you could argue that assigning an entire month would be more appropriate!
According to the United Nations campaign, 1 in 4 girls in the world get married as a child.
India has the largest population of children in the world so it might not surprise you that...
"India has the largest number of child brides in the world, one third of the global total." According to UNICEF.
In a 2017 publication titled, "Ending Child Marriage In India", UNICEF found that "nationally, the low value attached to daughters plays a significant role and the poorest women are more than twice as likely to have married as children than richer women."
"Furthermore, women with no education are six times more likely to get married than those with ten years education or more, and married women in rural areas twice as likely to be child brides as urban women."
Economically disadvantaged girls living in rural areas in India are at the highest risk for child marriage. Girls like these pictured here, who are in our Career Pathways Program in a rural village in West Bengal.
Empowering them is what International Day of the Girl is all about. When you partner with us, you are literally lifting them up from halfway around the world.
When the girls in the Career Pathways Program complete their education at the highest possible level, they'll be empowered to choose a career path. Once they complete the training or degree program associated with that career, the next step is to get a well paying job.
When you join with us in support of the girls in the Career Pathways Program, you are helping change the overall mindset in the disadvantaged rural communities.
Girls who emerge from poverty with a career will have the power to lift themselves and their families up. The community will take notice and slowly, the value of girls will be realized.
You make this possible.
#girlpower is on the rise!
Take a closer look at how you can empower girls in India through the Career Pathways Program!
