Girl Rising
I saw an amazingly powerful film last night, Girl Rising.
The film is being shown in community theaters everywhere people, mostly women, take the initiative to host an event like the one we attended at the Sacred Heart Theater in Greenwich.
The film shares the stories of nine girls from nine countries, each with the courage to overcome the obstacles of poverty, injustice, abuse and gender bias that has existed for hundreds of generations. What they have in common is their determination to learn, to be educated.
Here are a few of the facts behind the stories (10x10act.org Fact Sheet):
66 million girls are out of school globally. (UNESCO)
There are 33 million fewer girls than boys in primary school. (Education First)
A child born to a literate mother is 50% more likely to survive past the age of 5. (UNESCO)
Educated mothers are more than twice as likely to send their children to school. (UNICEF)
In a single year, an estimated 150 million girls are victims of sexual violence. (UNIFEM) [50% of sexual assaults in the world victimize girls under the age of 15 (UNFPA).]
14 million girls under 18 will be married this year. That’s 38 thousand today – or 13 girls in the last 30 seconds. (UNFPA)
The #1 cause of death for girls 15-19 is childbirth. (World Health Organization)
Girls with 8 years of education are 4 times less likely to be married as children. (National Academies Press)
Unlike so many documentaries and pleas for donations, this film was upbeat and positive. It is the smiles and the courage of the young women that remain with me, rather than that feeling of gult and shame so many causes go for when making an appeal to our compassionate side.
One of the teenagers who helped organize the showing of this film has a story of her own. At the age of sixteen, she heads up a company that makes headbands which she sells to raise money to educate girls around the world. She began this journey at the age of twelve when she asked her parents for a sewing machine. Her goal was to educate 100 girls. She has far exceeded that goal, and has inspired many others to donate their time and money to the cause.
This is not just about giving money to help those who have nothing. It is about fueling the fire of hope for generations to come. For many of these young girls, unwanted at birth, viewed as a source of income for their families when sold into marriage before they are teens, it isn't so easy to provide the support they need to get them to school.
As the stories in the film point out, it takes unbelievable courage to break the cycle. Changing the culture is almost impossible, given these conditions have existed since Biblical times and before.
What is so shocking is that we have not, as a people, advanced very far. And some parts of the world are reverting back to this way of life, where women are denied an existence, and are treated as property.
This is an important film, not only for its message, but for its impact on the young women (and hopefully young men) who watch it. It is a unifying message of hope and life, cutting across all faiths and peoples.
I urge you to watch the trailer, see the film, host the film if there is no place to see it. With enough people engaged, we can make illiteracy and the ills it brings, obsolete.
And what is obsolete and growing old will soon disappear. - Hebrews 8:13