With this campaign, our community can now directly impact girls’ education and empowerment by funding the projects of current and returned Volunteers, making more impact possible.
To educate a girl is to build a healthier family, a stronger community, and a brighter future. Unfortunately today, 62 million girls around the world are not in school. Half of them are adolescents. We know that countries with more girls in secondary school tend to have lower maternal mortality rates, lower infant mortality rates, lower rates of HIV/AIDS, and better child nutrition. But too often, a girl who could change her world for the better is locked out of that future by the circumstances of her birth or the customs of her community.
This initiative strikes at the core of cultural and contextual realities that prevent girls’ access to their rightful education. In the last two years, more than 400 PCVs, staff, and host country counterparts have been trained to respond to gender-based bias and violence that keep girls out of school. And across the globe, community-based girls' education and empowerment projects facilitated by members of our own Peace Corps community are opening door after opportune door. The development community has long known that investing in girls and women yields the highest returns, so you can be assured that your contribution to this campaign will, too.
