Investing in Girls - Why Supporting Girls in Africa Makes Sense

• Read more about Losing girls: post Ebola in Sierra Leone

“Women aged fifteen through forty-four are more likely to be maimed or die from male violence than from cancer, malaria, traffic accidents, and war combined.

Advocates of liberal trade policies, and there are many, consistently argue that free trade is beneficial for everyone and is indeed the most effective way to improve economies. While these arguments in their many forms and pluralities have much merit, they should not be without scrutiny. While it is a truthful claim that free trade does not discriminate, it cannot itself solve all the delicate problems linked so closely trade and the economy. For example, while free trade may benefit women as well as men, we should not expect it to pave the way for gender equality.

Girl Problems

International Women’s Day- A celebration of women of the world!

Every woman and every girl is extraordinary in her own special way. Whether it’s being there as a mother, daughter, sister, friend or wife; whether it’s at home, in the office or in the classroom, women the world over are everyday achievers! This is something that we all have a responsibility to recognize every day.

At fourteen, Aminata was hungrily looking in at the rice and sauce being served at her school in Freetown, Sierra Leone. By sixteen, she is married and pregnant. “My parents couldn’t afford to give me any money for food, so I dropped out of school and got into an early marriage to an older man.” As we Skype in a classroom, I in a spacious well equipped one in London and Aminata in a small, basic one, provided by the Global Giving charity in Sierra Leone, she and some of her classmates explain some of the problems they face.

Whether raising families or running nations, women are taking charge and shaping the world in seriously exciting ways.  International Women’s Day offers a well deserved opportunity to trumpet this fact and celebrate women’s individual and collective accomplishments.  It’s a day to honor and praise those women who have made a difference in your life, and a day to recognize the incredible advancements the world has made toward gender equality.

Today, without exception, we live in a technological age.  We live in a world where computers offer instant access to knowledge, communication, culture, and skill building opportunities.  We live in a time where a person can go to school, tend to their finances, talk with friends, apply to jobs and so much more - all with the click of a mouse.  Perhaps most important to acknowledge, we live in a world where those who possess computer skills soar in their personal and professional lives and those without often get left behind.