While working at Microsoft within International IT, I learned how the Gates Foundation through education was ending the poverty cycle. Specifically, girls education. Much of my work now is about understanding and evolving the systems within an organisation (not technology, but systems thinking) and educating girls is one of the keys to countries leaving poverty.
This year we are not sending gifts, we are donating to ONE GIRL, a charity who educate girls in the poorest countries of the world. Sadly two-thirds of the world's uneducated children are girls. In some countries, girls are still married at fourteen, and a mother at fifteen, however, when educated;
10-25% is how much a girl's income will increase for every extra year of education
Educated mothers are twice more likely to educate their children
90% is the percentage of income an educated women invests into her local community, for men this is 30% to 40%
When 10% more girls attend school, a countries GDP rises by 3%.
During 2020, the progress made in previous years of keeping girls in school has declined. COVID 19 has closed schools. In poorer countries, there is no remote learning; parents have lost their sources of income and are unable to support their family. The consequences for girls has been devastating; some are leaving school for work or being married.
As a father of three children, with the two eldest being girls aged 15 and 13, this is very uncomfortable, and why we are giving to ONE GIRL. Want to learn more? Watch this one minute or three-minute video.
Enjoy the end of the year with your loved ones, and thank you for being a client or reading my blogs.
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