While Georgetown doesnt have a word limit, I would like to cut it down to a page. I suggestions how to make it flow better! Thanks
Briefly discuss a current global issue, indicating why you consider it important and what you suggest should be done to deal with it
"What was your upbringing like in Nigeria?" I asked my dad. "Well, I worked the land. I went to school. My sisters stayed home. I wasn't distracted by all the things you are today. There was no Facebook, Twitter. All, I worried about was helping my family when I could and keeping up with my studies." While, I could see that my dad used this as an opportunity to motivate me to stay on top of my school work, all I took away from this conversation was that my dad went to school while his sisters didn't. Soon, I discovered this wasn't just happening in Nigeria during the 1950s but currently all around the world.
In Vietnam, Nhi wants to go to school, so she travels 30 miles on a bicycle to go to school in a neighboring village and 30 miles back to her meager home each day. In India, Monisha is looking for a way out because she knows that within a year or two, she will be pulled into the same cycle of commercial sex and exploitation that has plagued generations of women in her family. In Sierre Leone, 14 year old Amie is beaten and sexually assaulted by her husband and is ready to give up.
Deemed the "moral dilemma" of this century, gender inequality is limiting girls and women from education, participating in their local economies, and being thought of as equals. With more than 250 million girls living in poverty, the developing world has the most opportunity for a social and economic change. Larry summers, former chief economist of the World Bank said "It may well be that the highest return on investment in the developing world is in girls education." Education is a pathway that leads to women's independence from men, thus empowering women and young girls. With primary and secondary school education, girls and women in developing countries can increase job opportunities, lower their risk of falling victim to human trafficking, marry later and have fewer children. As an educated mother, she will be the most influential force in her community to break the cycle of poverty.
Introducing economic empowerment opportunities at an early stage in girls' lives equips them with the knowledge and understanding they need to shape their futures economies. Women's groups and community centers provide women a support system which lead to economic empowerment, thus gaining social influence and power for women in their communities. When these women put together their money or receive a microfinance loan, they can start a business, moving her out a vicious cycle into a virtuous one. For a girl to achieve economic empowerment she needs to be equipped with assets. We need to provide girls and women with financial knowledge, access to capital and make them aware of economic potential. Economic empowerment allows these young women to secure their futures with an income and savings, which gives her social status and authority of her own life.
As a democracy, we've made the mistake of thinking that if people need something we don't need to force it. But that isn't true. We need to work with community members in order to present women's equality as a lifestyle more than a cause. Melinda Gates made a good point in a TED talk. She asked why Coca Cola was more readily available in third world countries than vaccines. After watching that video, I asked myself "What is Coca Cola doing that could be applied to gender equality?" Coca Cola is using locals and has great marketing. If we, as a democracy, can better understand what these innovators are doing then we can apply that to public needs. The reason people want a coke is because, to them, coke is aspirational. It's about marketing girl's quality aspirational, too. Working with the locals to position it as a modern trendy thing, we reach a new audience. The local knows how to reach the hard to serve places and what motivates their neighbors, thus they can reinvent how gender roles are perceived.
Earlier this year, I began working with an Burundian organization named Youth in Reconstruction of a World in Destruction (YRWD). Their mission, to bring education of peace and national reconciliation, was something I easily get back when I realized that they fully intended to educate young girls as well. I helped fundraise for their cause by hosting a film presentation of the film "Half the Sky" to my school. I later gave a presentation to my local Rotary club, with the hopes that they could focus their efforts on empowering women. Georgetown understands that when rebuilding broken communities devastated by war, terrorism, natural disasters and poor economies, investing in girl's equality and education is the answer. When Georgetown opened the Institute for Women, Peace and Security and brought Secretary Kerry, Former Secretary Clinton, and Former First Lady Laura Bush, I realized how similar our missions were.
Globally there are policies, great leaders and international instruments that have made commitments to protect children from want and fear. All these great things have been in place to get young people to where we want them. But when the dream of a young girl in a developing country is to be educated, to have economic weight, and to be thought of as an equal, all these goals and hard work has failed. They failed my aunts, the women that came before them, and they failed many nations. Nigeria, like so many southeast asian and african countries, did not see the value in educating women. When we can carve out space for girl and women to sit and unlock greatness, intelligence, and passion, we are building the next community leaders, innovators, policy makers, and the best catalysts of change for regions that are suffering from an array of problems. Problems that can be fixed when we see that women are the solution, not the problem.
