Want to Save the Planet? Let’s Educate All the Girls!
How is the education of girls connected to saving the planet?
The Drawdown Project ranks educating girls #6 out of 100 strategies in reducing global warming. That’s an incredible statement!
The Project’s 2017 book Drawdown explains that educating women is:
the most powerful lever available for breaking the cycle of intergenerational poverty, while [lessening] carbon emissions by curbing population growth.
The Project explains that women with more education have lower fertility rates, higher wages, and greater upward mobility.
Educated women also
- Have fewer, healthier children and actively manage their reproductive health.
- Have lower maternal mortality rates, including mortality rates of their babies
- Are less likely to marry as children or against their will
- Have lower incidence of HIV/AIDS and malaria
- Have more productive agricultural plots and their families are better nourished
- Have a better capacity to cope with shocks from natural disasters and extreme weather events
The Brookings Institution calls secondary schooling for girls the most cost-effective and best investment against climate change.
Why Aren’t Girls in School?
The reasons vary by country, but here are some:
- Child labor
- Early marriage
- Conflict
- Cost
- Gender bias
- Health
- Natural Disasters
Here’s one thing preventing many girls from going to school or continuing: This UNICEF USA article explains that many lack supplies and sanitation facilities to manage their periods. Shame, stigma, and misinformation, especially in some cultures, also discourage girls from attending. In some areas the cost of supplies and unavailability of sanitation forces families to prioritize food and other essentials.
Ancient customs like banishing women to chhaupadi huts and other similar isolations during their periods keep young women out of school for a significant time every month.
How You Can Help Girls Get an Education
I’ve listed several charities that work to improve health and education for women and girls, but there are many more. The ratings after the names of some of these charities are with Charity Navigator and some are identified as U.S. tax-exempt charities.
Malala Fund (Rating: 100 out of 100/U.S. tax exempt)
Malala Yousafzai became an international sensation in 2014 when she received the Novel Peace Prize for establishing the Malala Fund, “dedicated to giving every girl an opportunity to achieve a future she chooses.”
Malala says, “One child, one teacher, one book, and one pen, can change the world.”
The Malala Fund focuses on giving girls access to 12 years of “free, safe, quality education” by investing in the work of local educators, activists, and advocates through its Education Champion Network. They currently support programs in Afghanistan, Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Lebanon, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Turkey.
Operation Bootstrap Africa (Rating: 90.76 out of 100/U.S. tax exempt)
Operation Bootstrap Africa (OBA) is a faith-based organization founded in 1965 to support a variety of education projects, including girls’ education. It builds and supports schools in Tanzania, Kenya, and Madagascar to give girls an opportunity to graduate from secondary school. It also gives scholarships to women pursuing post-secondary education, and it operates a nursing school in Tanzania that trains women to be healthcare providers and serve their communities.
Donors can sponsor individual girls, support girls’ education, fund health care, and sustainable agriculture projects.
The Bacho Vocational School in Tanzania, supported in part by OBA, provides classrooms, tractors, fuel, seeds, and tilapia ponds.
I like their “teach a woman to fish” philosophy.
Girls Not Brides (Not rated/Not a U.S. charity)
Girls Not Brides is a global partnership of more than 1200 civil society organizations committed to ending child marriage and enabling girls to fulfill their potential. In 2014 Melinda Gates rated it one of her top picks for charities that benefit women and girls across the world.
They partner with crowdfunding website GlobalGiving to connect individual donors with Girls Not Brides members working to end child marriage. You can also support a campaign by signing petitions or sharing information.
You can use your wedding as a way to bring awareness to the Girls Not Brides campaign, by setting up a wedding registry. Cool idea!
CAMFED (Rated 96.30/100; U.S. tax-exempt)
The Campaign for Female Education (CAMFED) has educational programs in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Ghana, Tanzania, and Malawi, helping students in primary and secondary school. Their network of CAMFED alumni is a group of over 157,000 women leaders using their education to benefit others. They have also pulled together groups and individuals who actively champion and support the advancement of girls and young women.
One interesting way to donate to CAMFED is to send an eCard to friends or family, while you’re supporting girls with school fees, uniforms, shoes, and books.
Girls Inc. (Individual chapters rated 4-star/U.S. tax-exempt)
Girls Inc.’s goal is to inspire all girls to be strong, smart, and bold. Local chapters throughout the U.S. operate independently, using evidence-based programs to guide girls and help them learn to “value their whole selves, discover and develop their inherent strength, and receive the support they need to navigate the challenges they face.” Their three focus areas are healthy living, academic enrichment and support, and life skills instruction.
The organization’s academic program gives girls practical education, and 89% of Girls Inc. girls find science or math interesting. Yeah for more women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math)!
You can help this organization by donating, taking action, or volunteering with a local chapter.
Need More Encouragement to Help Educate ALL Girls?
“Educating girls
* Creates smaller, healthier, more financially secure families
* Inreases agricultural output and climate-smart farming
* Increases resilience to climate disasters”
The Bottom Line: Educated Women Can Drive Climate Change
Finally, maybe most important of all, education creates women leaders who can work together to support each other and the next generation, to thrive and lead change.
Note: My research began with the book I mentioned above, Drawdown. It’s an excellent resource for study groups, organizations, and a general understanding of the relative value of various global climate rescue and restoration strategies.
