Michelle Obama Promotes #62MillionGirls and the Let Girls Learn Initiative

Our beloved FLOTUS took the stage with Beyonce at the 2015 Global Citizen Festival to raise awareness for her new campaign, 62 Million Girls. In partnership with the initiative Let Girls Learn, 62 Million Girls seeks to empower girls around the world, helping them to continue their educations, eradicate gender-based violence, achieve economic stability, and more. The focus on education and earning potential gives girls greater bodily autonomy and control of their own futures.

You can check out the official US government fact sheet here. Some highlights of the program and its partnerships:

The Empowering Adolescent Girls to Lead through Education (EAGLE) project focuses on promoting girls’ education in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This five-year, $15.9 million initiative funded by PEPFAR and USAID, seeks to equip adolescent girls in the DRC with educational, life, and leadership skills, including sessions on health, HIV/AIDS awareness, and self-esteem. The project includes teacher training and programs to reduce school-related gender-based violence. EAGLE will provide scholarships for 3,000 primary school students (“EAGLE scholars”) to help improve girls’ transition from primary to secondary school and increase completion rates for lower secondary school.
In Georgia [the country], MCC is investing $122.5 million to improve the quality of education in the STEM fields and increase earning potential of girls and minorities. The project will renovate about 80 schools with up-to-date science labs; gender-and-disable-friendly restrooms; and will train all secondary science, math, and English teachers–and over 2,000 principals—in inclusive methods that encourage greater engagement of girls and minorities.
USAID/Bangladesh supports the Promoting Human Rights project, which engages with local NGOs and local government and schools to address issues of domestic violence; child, early and forced marriage; and sexual harassment through dialogue, advocacy, role playing and interactive games. In one year alone, the project prevented 382 child, early and forced marriages through the direct intervention of USAID-supported community based groups comprised of community leaders, elected officials, professionals, members of law enforcement, and religious leaders.