Did you know:
" • An extra year of primary school boosts girls’ eventual wages by 10 to 20 percent. An extra year of secondary school: 15 to 25 percent.
(George Psacharopoulos and Harry Anthony Patrinos, “Returns to Investment in Education: A Further Update,” Policy Research Working Paper 2881 [Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 2002].)
• Research in developing countries has shown a consistent relationship between better infant and child health and higher levels of schooling among mothers.
(George T. Bicego and J. Ties Boerma, “Maternal Education and Child Survival: A Comparative Study of Survey Data from 17 Countries,” Social Science and Medicine 36 (9) [May 1993]: 1207–27.)
• When women and girls earn income, they reinvest 90 percent of it into their families, as compared to only 30 to 40 percent for a man.
(Phil Borges, with foreword by Madeleine Albright, Women Empowered: Inspiring Change in the Emerging World [New York: Rizzoli, 2007], 13.) "
These statistics come from The Girl Effect, a web site created by the Nike Foundation and NoVo Foundation to educate people about the positive impact educating and empowering girls can have on a community. In addition to the video above, which I recommend you take a couple minutes to watch, they have created four short videos about girls who are either benefiting from, or could benefit from The Girl Effect.
The one question I had, as did Blogging for a Better Tomorrow, and some of the commenters on the ONE.org blog, is how authentic is this campaign given Nike's track record with sweatshops? Does anyone know what the most up to date information is on how they are doing in that regard?
Whatever the motivation is behind the campaign, the ideas behind it are important to support. You can get involved with The Girl Effect by sharing the web site and videos, learning more about the issue, and donating to a project that support girls on The Girl Effect's Global Giving page.
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof had a column, The Luckiest Girl, around a similar idea last week. In his accompanying blog post, Buying Goats and Other Aid he recommends foreign aids groups you can support. The 350+ people who commented on his post (wow!) made recommendations as well.
Hat tip to my pal Noel Brewer, who forwarded me the video.
