Educating and protecting girls

Education is key to fighting poverty. “Educating girls is the single most powerful investment for development. When you educate a girl, you educate a nation,” explains Norwegian Ambassador to Malawi, Asbjørn Eidhammer.

But cultural expectations and a lack of funds mean that millions of girls aren’t at school today. Instead, they are fetching wood and water; they’re herding goats and cleaning the house. Tragically, many of them are married; some are bringing up children of their own.

In the lead up to International Day of the Girl Child, please join us in praying for girls in the world’s poorest communities to be given better access to education. Educated women are healthier, less likely to contract HIV and AIDS and other preventable diseases. They’re wealthier too, an extra year of education beyond the average boosts a girl’s future income by 20 percent. And the benefits are not just felt by them, they are passed on to the next generation; an extra year at school reduces infant mortality by 10 percent.* School changes everything.

• Pray for girls who have never seen the inside of a classroom.
• Pray that the obstacles standing in the way of them getting an education would be removed.
• Ask that girls will be protected from influences that can take them away from the classroom. Pray for protection against forced early marriages and FGM (Female Genital Mutilation).

_{*World Bank (2011), UNESCO (2011)}