"A good education can lift you...into a life you never could have imagined"
President Obama and the First Lady have
teamed up with the Peace Corps to expand
access to education for adolescent girls
around the world through the Let Girls Learn
initiative.
“A good education can lift you from the
most humble circumstances into a life you
never could have imagined.”
— First Lady Michelle Obama
70% of the 1 billion people living in extreme
poverty are women. Education can change
that.
Education is not a privilege, it is a
fundamental human right for all. Through a
global network of support, the Let Girls Learn
initiative will put lasting community-led and
community-generated solutions in place for
the more than 62 million girls across the globe
are not receiving an education. The Peace
Corps will be expanding the number of
volunteers focused on advancing universal
access to education and will continue to break
down the barriers to girls' education in the
communities they serve.
The positive effects that an education has not
just for girls, but also for their families,
communities and countries are boundless. As
a global community, we are making progress.
While we don’t yet live in a world where every
women has an opportunity to learn, we do
have numbers telling us why we need too.
According to data from USAID, one in seven
girls is married before her 15th birthday in the
developing world. However, girls with a high
school level education are up to six times less
likely to marry as children compared to girls
who have little or no education.
What's more, an education can save lives. In
developing countries, medical complications
from pregnancy are the leading cause of death
among adolescent girls. However, if girls were
offered a secondary education, almost 60% of
girls under 17 years would not become
pregnant in sub-Saharan Africa and South and
West Asia.
“We cannot allow challenges to rob
generations of young women of their
futures.”
