Social justice starts with girls’ education
World Day of Social Justice (February 20) is a date to reflect on how far we still have to travel to tackle poverty, social injustice, gender inequity, climate change and other critical challenges.
These issues, exacerbated by the global pandemic, threaten to exclude 11 million more girls from school*, leave behind all children who cannot access online learning, and deepen economic divides. To move forward, our world requires solutions that combine grassroots leadership with national and global investment in girls’ education. So, on this day, take a moment to hear from CAMFED’s experts — young women with lived experience of injustice — as they lead agile local action and global advocacy for the most marginalized.
The best minds to address local issues are those with a deep understanding of the challenges which the most marginalized in their communities face.
Angeline Murimirwa – CAMFED Executive Director – Africa
Education is a superpower and should be communicated as such. Education – especially girls’ education – addresses the biggest challenges we face across the globe – from poverty, COVID and climate change to gender inequity, instability and social injustice.
Watch Angeline Murimirwa’s live interview on CNBC Africa
By sharing my story, and my lived experience, I helped inspire girls in school. I understand girls’ hardships — such as lack of school supplies, lack of sanitary wear, and insufficient school funds — intimately, and so I took up the responsibility of supporting 10 children to go to school using my own income.
Read Alice Saisha’s blog “The power of unity”
In her Power Lunch interview with CNBC’s Arnold Kwizera, Angeline Murimirwa, CAMFED Executive Director – Africa, addresses the impact COVID-19 has had on education in our countries of operation, and how to best bridge the widening gap between the most and least privileged. She underscores the leadership of young women from marginalized backgrounds in the CAMFED Association, united by a determination to see every child succeed.
Alice Saisha is one of these young women, now using her expertise in service of CAMFED’s programs in Zambia. In her blog for Day of Social Justice, The Power of Unity - Celebrating a Sisterhood of Leaders, Alice addresses girls’ vulnerability to abuse, especially when they are out of school, and young women’s determination to rally communities around their protection, so that they can access school, learn, thrive and become independent leaders in their communities.
To learn more about the world-changing power of our sisterhood for change, sign up for CAMFED’s eBulletin today.
* UNESCO (2020) Over 11 million girls may not go back to school after the COVID-19 crisis. https://en.unesco.org/covid19/educationresponse/girlseducation (Accessed February 16, 2021)