Hey Guys!

Recently I heard about the amazing organization Girl Up, created by the United Nations Foundation. When my mom briefly told me about its purpose I immediately felt it was my duty as a girl to promote its message. Girl Up’s mission to help adolescent girls around the world live their dreams of becoming strong, bright, and curious leaders is something I feel needs to be supported globally. This is accomplished by donations starting at five dollars that are put into programs guaranteed to give these underprivileged girls the opportunity to become educated, healthy, safe, and position them to, like us, be the next generation of leaders.

The focus shown on inspiring ones that are not otherwise inspired furthers my understanding that not all girls are as fortunate as we are. Not only is it humbling to know there are people that want to help these girls, but it is the most empowering experience to actually donate, and make the difference. To know that I am helping girls in the hardest-to-reach areas of the world like Guatemala, Liberia, Ethiopia, and Malawi gives a feeling of community and creates a common bond between all of us girls in the world. GirlUp.org focuses on getting American girls to give, talk, and get involved because we have shown to care about these issues and have proven to make an impact. Our understanding that girls in developing countries face the challenges they do to be “unfair” is the first step to achieving the empowered community of girls all around the world that Girl Up envisions. To imagine that 600 million girls in developing countries don’t have the chance to go to school is a sickening image, and together we can drastically reduce this number for good.

On GirlUp.org there are 4 stories of girls whose lives have been changed with an education powered by Girl Up. One of these girls, Sesuagno Mola lives in the Amhara region of Ethiopia, Africa and was married at age five. The Girl Up-funded Berhane Hewan program that helps delay marriage and support adolescent girls in her region came to her town, and she joined. The program taught her basic literacy and skills that created a healthier home environment such as building wooden shelves to store food. She also said that the program gave her the empowerment she needed to understand she should wait to have her next child. These aspects of Sesuagno’s life have never posed an issue in mine because I was born with my own Berhane Hewan program, my parents, to guide me. Knowing that my five dollars went to this program or one similar inspires me to inspire you to give to our sisters overseas.

Lily Kaplan
Age 15
Student, Convent of the Sacred Heart High School, San Francisco
Daughter of Vivanista Founder, Layne Gray