Today we celebrate the power of girls worldwide. Despite everyday challenges, girls and young women across the world are rising and leading the way forward.
Today marks International Day of the Girl: an annual initiative launched by the United Nations to support and empower young women across the globe. The theme this year is focused on celebrating all the achievements by, with and for girls since the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action and the passage of the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990.
At WONDER, we are celebrating the achievements of the brave young women we work with through our partner organisations. They continue to inspire us every day through their determination to succeed and to change their life for the better. They also inspire us to continue our work with partners to equip girls with the power, knowledge and space to fulfil their potential. We must create more opportunities for girls to be heard and more safe spaces for them to thrive, leading change for girls is our collective responsibility.
We know that girls and young women are incredible changemakers with the potential to change their communities and countries and help to build the world they want to see. However, many girls around the work are held back. Millions of young women globally are denied access to quality education. Victims of poverty and traditional gender biases, 65 million girls of primary and secondary school age are kept out of the classrooms, missing out on the chance to learn vital skills to thrive and lead in their own development.
We need to uphold the equal rights, voices and influence of girls in our families, communities and nations. Girls can be powerful agents of change, and nothing should keep them from participating fully in all areas of life.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres
Girls who stay in school are more likely to support themselves, look after their health, avoid early marriage and pregnancy and contribute to society. Educating girls also helps their siblings, family, and wider community to thrive as well. We believe that all women and girls should have access to quality education so that they get the skills they need to thrive in their community.
Through our work with our partners around the world, we are changing lives, one young woman at the time. We work closely with our local partners in 19 countries around the world to create long-term solutions to the issues affecting young women’s access to education in each community we work in. We have also initiated a young women’s leadership project in Europe, Red:GLOW to empower young women to become leaders in their own communities and countries.
By supporting WONDER, you can help empower more young women through our projects around the world on Day of the Girl and on every other day of the year. For example, a monthly donation of £30 can cover the school fees for a girl in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, or help to build a new learning centre for young women in Cameroon.
