WASHINGTON DC – December 11, 2014 – On Friday, the global poverty fighting organization CARE will participate in a Brookings Institution panel event to raise awareness about the importance of community empowerment in helping adolescent girls receive education. First Lady Michelle Obama will deliver remarks before the panel.
The event is part of a joint collaboration with the Brookings Institution’s Center for Universal Education and Glamour Magazine. Cindi Leive, Editor-in-Chief at Glamour, will moderate the panel discussion. CARE recently joined Glamour’s global philanthropic initiative, The Girl Project. The Girl Project will raise funds to break down the barriers to secondary education for young women all over the world.
CARE program participant, 17-year-old student named Namunyana Mwajuma from Uganda will share her personal story in the panel discussion. Namunyana and her family have participated in several CARE programs. When her father disappeared in 2013, her mother was no longer able to afford school fees causing Namunyana to drop out of school.
Luckily, her mother joined CARE’s micro-savings program called Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLA). The community-based program taught her mother about financial literacy and how to save and invest her money into small business ventures. Her mother was able to use the profit from her businesses to send Namunyana to school.
CARE also engaged Namunyana’s school administration and helped get her enrolled in a life skills course. This helped boost her confidence and self-esteem. As a result, she says her school performance has improved.
There are 50 million girls worldwide who are denied the right to an education. Some are forced into child marriage and other live in areas where education is forbidden. Others like Namunyana have difficulty affording school fees.
The Girl Project will help girls and young women like Namunyana around the world. Through Thegirlproject.com, people everywhere can help fund scholarships, after-school programs, mobile schools, and other efforts to educate girls. The program offers several ways to get involved. Donation levels starting at $5 can help a girl with school supplies, while $150 can pay for a year of school fees.
You can watch a live webcast of this special panel. Register at www.brookings.edu to take part.
About CARE:
Founded in 1945 with the creation of the CARE Package®, CARE is a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. CARE places special focus on working alongside poor girls and women because, equipped with the proper resources, they have the power to lift whole families and entire communities out of poverty. Our six decades of experience show that when you empower a girl or woman, she becomes a catalyst, creating ripples of positive change that lift up everyone around her. That’s why girls and women are at the heart of CARE’s community-based efforts to improve education, health, and economic opportunity for everyone. We also work with girls and women to promote social justice, respond to emergencies and confront hunger and climate change. Last year CARE worked in 87 countries and reached more than 97 million people around the world. To learn more, visit care.org.
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Stephanie Chen, Policy Communications Manager
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