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we encourage girls' independence

With Girl Up, you speak for girls who do not have a voice…yet.

In many developing countries, a girl may have to marry young and take care of her older husband and her own children.

She might have to stay home and take care of younger siblings and household chores. She might have to go to work in someone else’s house and take care of their siblings, or chores, or babies. That does not leave a girl a lot of time to have her say.

Ninety percent of the worldwide domestic workforce — that is, maids and nannies and cooks and laundresses — are girls under 16. Ninety percent.

Through Girl Up, we encourage girls' independence, running classes on handling their own money or speaking in public.

We position them as leaders, empowering them to speak for girls everywhere.

DID YOU KNOW?

• Data show that in some cases, 80 to 90 percent of youth program participants are boys.
• In 2008, women held only 18 percent of parliamentary seats worldwide.
• Providing girls with leadership skills and including them in the decision-making process is one of the major tools to spark economic and social change.