PBS NewsHour ran a nice segment on the Girl Up Campaign (5:25 clip) yesterday. It sounds like a great program, sponsored by the UN Foundation.
The idea is to build grassroots support among American teens and tweens to help peers in developing countries stay in school, stay free from child labor, and safe from violence.
The segment also tells the story of identical twin girls born in Vietnam. One sister was given up for adoption and is now lives in California, a 12 year-old with the dream of going to UCLA and med school. Aware that her sister, still in Vietnam, faces a reality of hard work with little opportunity, Isabella Solimene is doing what she can, working with GirlUp, to help her sister and girls like her.
Find out more about Girl Up
Hi Steve,
Yeah, I agree that the situation with women and girls around the world is a critical issue. As I said in one of the blog posts from El Salvador, I think they represent the “canary in the coal mine” for the health of our society and the future of humanity.
Thanks for all your work and witness,
Geoff
I got a reminder yesterday that page views does not equal impact. This post shows up in my stats as having gotten only 4 views, but a friend said that as a result of learning about Girl Up from this post, his daughter (7 or 8 years old…) is talking with her teacher about possible class projects. Way to go!