Investing in the future of girls’ education
We’re expanding the Gulmakai Network.
Malala Fund is excited to welcome 14 new champions to our Gulmakai Network, an initiative that supports local education activists in countries where girls face the greatest barriers to education, including Afghanistan, India, Lebanon, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey.
Thanks to Malala Fund donors, we provide these advocates with the resources they need to break down the threats to girls’ education specific to their communities.
Here are just a few of the projects you are supporting:
- In Lebanon, where Syrian refugee girls face the threat of early marriage, Hiba Hamzi advocates to raise the legal minimum age of marriage to 18. She holds workshops to teach girls about the risks of early marriage and the value of staying in school.
- Reeta Kaushik is training education administrators in northern India to address the issues girls face in the classroom, like harassment, that make it difficult for them to stay in school.
- Haroon Yasin developed a digital learning platform that helps out-of-school girls in Pakistan catch up on missed lessons before they re-enter the classroom.
Learn more about the Gulmakai Champions and their projects here.
Our new class is already making an impact for girls with Malala Fund. At the end of April, Nigerian Gulmakai Champion Kiki James joined me and the Malala Fund team at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in London. With our advocacy, the 53 heads of government from Commonwealth nations — including Pakistan, India and Nigeria — agreed to provide a full 12 years of quality education for all children.
This is just the beginning. With your support, we will see more wins like these from each of our Gulmakai Champions. Through their work, we’re seeing greater gains for girls, and for our world.
Local educators and activists understand challenges in their communities and are best placed to identify, innovate and advocate for policy and programmatic solutions.
