World Leaders Commit 3 Billion Dollars to Girls Education
Ahead of this years G7 Summit in Quebec, Canada, Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani activist for education and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, urged world leaders to make an investment in girls education. Yousafzai reminded these leaders of the 130 million young girls around the globe who are currently not attending school. The words of Yousafzai must have struck a chord with these global leaders because during the summit roughly 3 billion dollars was pledged for the development and advancement of girls education in the coming year.
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| Pictured: Malala Yousafzai |
Yousafzai, in her responsorial letter to the large monetary commitment, wrote that "[g]irls education is critical to many of the challenges the G7 discussed during the summit: strengthening the global economy, growing the middle class, decreasing poverty, and combating climate change, and keeping our countries safe," (Yousafzai). Also meaning: the world has many equally distressing and urgent problems to worry about, but those who have the potential and capacity to solve our most pressing issues will not be able to lead change if they are not given a quality education. An investment in the education of women will be an investment in a better future.
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| Statistics from the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization Reveal that Girls are Two Times more Unlikely to Ever Even Enter School, Let Alone Complete their Education |
Instead of focusing on the cure for cancer or the possible solutions for world peace, the potential of the world's most bright and capable women will go to waste because they did not have the proper tools become educated. If action is not taken to ensure a quality education for all, girls in developing countries will continue to be forced into child labor to support their families, or into early marriages, where they will be expected to dedicate the rest of their lives to bearing and maintaining as many children as possible, thus continuing the cycle of rigid gender roles.
While statistics on the rates of child marriage in developing countries and the current population of girls out of school make the future look very bleak, the recent 3 billion dollar commitment to girls education (which is, by association, an investment in the medical, scientific, and political fields) is an enormous step in the direction of the end goal: a world where women have all the same opportunities afforded to them as men, so they may work together as one to solve the world's most pressing issues.
- sources of photos:
- https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/3-billion-pledged-for-girls-education-at-g7-summit-delighting-malala-yousafzai-1865183
- https://twitter.com/unescostat/status/732194131183828992
- information sources:
After reading this blog entry, I am very happy to see that something is being done to help with girls who are not be able to be educated. World leaders are finally doing things to help women get an education, because who knows who the person to find the cure of cancer, or figure out a way to effectively help our environment in its time of despair, but chances are it will be a woman, and with 3 billion dollars being pledged to helping educate women, it educate these girls, who have incredible potential, but they can not reach their potential as they are being limited by what they are being taught, as they are not able to go to school due to the fact there is not funding to create these establishments for women to learn, and to become the next Einstein.
ReplyDeleteThis makes me so happy to read! The fact that so many females around the world are not receiving the education they need and deserve is extremely angering and disappointing, and I am thankful that something is being done to change that. Of course there's still along way left to go (there will always be a long way left to go), but this is a major step and I'm very glad you highlighted that. Malala's story has really impacted the world, and it hurts me that it took so long to get the message across, but the point is that it did! Because of one woman and her voice. It's so empowering and so important for people to understand what women can do and should be doing.
ReplyDeleteI love this article, and am so glad this is being talked about. Its a very serious issue and I admire malala greatly or everything she has endured and done to help women around the world. Every woman deserves to be set up for sucess not failure, they should not have to fight to get a basic education. this is a great first step and I am also hoping we can gert to a world where men and women all have the same oppurtunities.
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