One Girl.

I’ve been slack again, I know. But I’ve been learning and seeing and hearing lots and therefore have heaps to blog about. First things first, though. They day after my last post (my rant about modern slavery), I heard this girl present on an organization called ‘One Girl.’ It was very apt.

I’ve always got my ears open for not-for-profits doing excellent things, particularly in the way of creating a more environmentally and socially sustainable world. And One Girl is one of those. Founded by Chantelle Baxter and David Dixon, the project is focused on the education and empowerment of women in Sierra Leone, where they are more than likely to be married off before they turn 15 and are guaranteed to experience some kind of sexual abuse before they turn 18.

It turns out that 1 in 6 girls living in poverty won’t have the opportunity to finish school. This might be because they’ve been married off as a child. Or because they fall pregnant (which is often not consensual). Or simply because their families can’t afford to send them to school and instead they’re expected to work to support their families.

I’m a teacher, so I’m totally biased, but there’s a lot of info out there that suggests that educating girls is the first step in creating a much more equitable and sustainable world for everyone. Even Nike agrees (I know…even I was hesitant when I found out this program was run by Nike, but it is genuinely a good thing. I guess even multinational corporations are allowed to atone for their sins and I’m not going to be the one to stop them).

OR try the link The Girl Effect.

Even the UN agrees. One of the Millennium Development goals is to ‘eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education, no later than 2015.’ It’s important stuff.

I’m incredibly into environmental sustainability and creating economies that local and self-sufficient. But not just for me. I’m only one person in one town in one nation. I can only make a very small impact on anything in and of myself. But what if hundreds…thousands…millions of people (like girls living in poverty) are empowered to take control of their lives and create local sustainable economies and lifestyles all over the world. Now we’re talking.

P.S. Go…do it. Send a girl to school. It’s ever so eco-chic. 😉