Late last year, the United Nations declared that October 11^th, 2012 would be the very first International Day of the Girl. It’s a day that focuses on human rights for girls, highlights gender inequalities, especially in access to education and health care, and addressing discrimination and abuse suffered by girls around the world.

At the top of the world’s agenda for girls is ending child marriage and keeping girls in school. Here are a few reasons why:

• 77.6 million girls worldwide are not enrolled in school.
• In some countries, 1 in 7 girls are married before they turn 15.
• When a country educates 10 percent more of its girls, it increases its GDP by an average of 3 percent.
• When a girl is educated, she makes healthier choices. An educated girl is 50 percent more likely to vaccinate her children in the future and is three times less likely to contract HIV
• Malala Yousufzai, a 14-year-old girl in Afghanistan, is in a critical condition after being shot on her way home from school by people who are frightened of girls learning to read and write.
  
  

The Take Action Challenge: 

Invite the girls in your life to check out www.girlup.org to find ways to get involved.

Check out www.catapult.org, a new online giving platform from our partners at Women Deliver, with projects 100 percent focused on girls and women. Make a donation to a project that supports a girl today!

We will be tweeting a marathon of support and calls to action for the world’s girls from 9am ET to 9pm ET today, October 11th. Join us and organizers, 10x10act.org on twitter with #IDG2012 for #DayoftheGirl. 

Data referenced above via 10x10act.org. Gratitude for all they do to help girls everywhere! Check them out and share their great work.

Join us and thousands of other voices standing up for girls today and every day.