CONSEQUENCES
Literacy for girls has a transformative effect on a family and the wider community. Education plays one of the most vital roles in elevating the life and future of a girl and literacy is a basic human necessity. Every girl deserves a quality education and the opportunity to learn, thrive, grow, and dream of a better future. The sustainability, progress, social, and economic development of nations depends on the success of women across the globe. In a United Nations General Assembly address, President Obama said “The future is shaped by girls who go to school. We must stand for a world where our daughters can live their dreams just like our sons.”
ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT
Literacy empowers a girl and makes her financially independent. It allows a girl to take control of her destiny and chart her path without being subjugated by other's decisions for her life. Educated girls can make informed choices and have a better range of options. The yields from investing in girls’ education are substantial. According to the World Bank, the return on one year of secondary education for a girl correlates with as high as a 25% increase in wages later in life for her. The effects carry from one generation to the next: educated girls reinvest what they earn into their families and play a greater role in the upliftment of their family's future.
IMPROVED FAMILY HEALTH
Education for girls helps to delay early child marriage and improves maternal health and reproductive outcomes and reduces infant mortality rates. Educated girls marry later, plan their children, and have smaller families which contributes to lower levels of population growth. They also have healthier children because they are better informed about their nutritional and psychological needs and equipped to take good healthcare decisions. Educated women contribute to lower infections rates, HIV and AIDS, and malaria.
DECREASE IN SOCIAL CRIME
At the wider societal level, trafficking, acts of violence, patriarchy, and oppression against women decrease. Education for women and gender equality go hand in hand. Literate women have higher self-esteem and can stand up for themselves more effectively than an illiterate woman who is living in poverty and dependent on others. Economic independence is reflected not only in a woman’s capacity to spend, save, acquire property and invest, but also in the freedom to get out of abusive domestic relationships and prevent gender-based violence from perpetuating.
NATIONAL PROGRESS AND DECREASE IN POVERTY
The development of a nation or region is indicated by the level of education and that too of both genders. Literacy for girls leads to an increase in female leaders, more female voters taking decisions for a nation, and more participation in the workforce. An educated female population increases a country's productivity and fuels economic growth: a one percentage point increase in female education raises the average gross domestic product (GDP) by 0.3 percentage points and raises annual GDP growth rates by 0.2 percentage points.
WHAT WE HOPE TO ACHIEVE
Our goal is to help girls living in the Clarkston refugee area of Georgia and the Bhalswa Slums in Delhi, India overcome the barriers they face to shaping a better future through education and advocacy. Every girl deserves to be heard, counted, encouraged, and uplifted. We want to empower girls to create change from within because girls deserve equal opportunity in life and the ability to shape their future. We believe girls have the tenacity needed to achieve great things and to be change-makers in their own communities. Every girl is born with a unique purpose to fulfill, whether she is a wife and mother, pursues a career, or becomes the President of a nation. Our work begins for girls in Clarkston and Delhi but we strive to amplify the voice of every girl across the globe to create lasting change.
