By: Ahoua Koulibali
First Lady Michelle Obama has decided to add another project to her long list with the Let Girls Learn Initiative. Over the past 6 years, the First Lady has met with local leaders, experts, and global education advocates to eliminate barriers that prevent adolescent girls’ education around the world. Other groups involved in the initiative are Peace Corps, which is training thousands of volunteers and community leaders, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and Empowering Adolescent Girls to Lead through Education (EAGLE). While the main goal of the initiative is to create opportunities for girls to have access to and complete school, the initiative also provides programs on health, nutrition, and gender-based violence. The initiative will work with countries such as Liberia, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
The Global Citizen Festival — a free-ticketed event on the Great Lawn in Central Park on Saturday, September 26, 2015 — was timed to coincide with the launch of the United Nations’ new Global Goals designed to fight inequality, protect the planet and end extreme poverty by 2030. The Let Girls Learn Initiative was one of those goals. To spread awareness about the initiative,Michelle Obama asked the attendees to take to social media using the #62MillionGirls hashtag and explain how school has impacted them. Celebrities who were in attendance help to publicize on Twitter and Instagram. This led other celebrities and people in general to learn about the First Lady’s new initiative and also use the hashtag. Among the list of celebrities who popularized the hashtags are Beyoncé, Kerry Washington, Alicia Keys, Aziz Ansari,Freida Pinto, Coldplay and many more.
People can help make the initiative successful and help it reach more girls by raising awareness, donating to the Peace Corps Fund, and even helping to develop new programs locally or worldwide.