Not in Africa, but...

While skimming through the world news this morning, I ran across this feature on the BBC, written by a girl living in Pakistan.

It's a diary of her life in the Swat Valley region of Pakistan. The area used to be known as "the Switzerland of Pakistan," but has lately been making headlines as a hotbed of Taleban activity and the focal point of their campaign to close/destroy Pakistani private schools in an effort to stop the education of girls.

Education and the rights of women and girls have long been causes dear to my heart. Since coming to work with Plan, I've found that the listening to the voices of children (and protecting their ability to speak) has joined the list of causes I'd like to advance. With that in mind, it goes without saying (though I'm going to say it anyway) that this article struck a chord with me.

I touched on the education of girls in a previous post sometime back. Though I still don't know if achieving real success in development is as 'simple' as "getting girls (especially rural girls) into and through school up to the 8th grade," but I'm pretty sure ensuring that girls receive educations is a pretty significant step in the right direction.

Education is a a huge economic asset; for women especially, it opens doors to economic self-sufficiency and sustainability in the future. It's also been shown in studies all over the world that more educated women marry later (read: when they're women and not themselves still children), have fewer children, space the children that they do have, are substantially less likely to die in giving birth to those children, and are more likely to have children (both boys and girls) who themselves attend school and reap the benefits that it brings. And that's just the benefits to the girls themselves; the benefits to the countries and communities in which little girls grow into empowered and inspired women are nothing short of profound. (You can check out the reports being published by Plan as part of their Because I Am A Girl campaign for more detailed info).

In Gul Makai's case, you can already see the difference education has made. Being able to read and write allowed her to share her story with the BBC: maybe, just maybe, the education she already has will help her secure the education she and others like her need and deserve in the future.