When I learned these statistics, I was completely shocked (only not in a good way). I had to do something to change this. Considering me being a Bangladeshi and a girl, I just couldn’t sit around and be apathetic like most of my generation (which is the truth). So, in March 2004, I became a founding member of School Girls Unite (SGU for short). 

          School Girls Unite’s main motto is “Educate Girls Globally”. Unfortunately, we can only help one country at a time. Right now, we are focusing on Mali, where 64% of their young female population can’t go to school (but don’t worry, we’ll help Bangladesh real soon). We raise money by selling school supplies that bear our logo. We also had our first ever fundraiser on February 6^th, 2005. We attracted about 300 people, which was especially impressive because it was held on Super Bowl Sunday.          

          All in all, our entrepreneurial activities raised over $10,000, one of our major goals. We sent $300 to Mali, which was enough to send 15 girls to school for one year (if you do the math, it only costs $20 for just one girl). But we don’t want to send all our earnings. After all, one year of school really won’t give you much. We were thinking of building better school houses and maybe even set up a student exchange program between Malian kids and American kids.    

          SGU isn’t always about the “dough”, though. Along with raising money, we also want to raise awareness. We have spoken to adults as well as kids about the lack of girls’ education around the world. It’s amazing how little people know about these issues. But what really angers me is how little people care. This goes to show why the US government spends only a little percentage of our wealth on global education. They think we don’t care. But SGU is going to show them that we do care.  

          For the past two years, SGU has participated in the Global Campaign for Education, where people all over the world go to their world leaders and...er...campaign for their education. This year, we participated in the “Send My Friend to School” project. The goal was to make 3 million cutouts of children, each representing a child not in school (of course, SGU made girls). Surprisingly, supporters across the world were able to make 3.5 million cutouts. These cutouts will be sent to the G-8 summit in Scotland and they will tell the world leaders to get their priorities straight!  

          So there you have it. School Girls Unite: educating girls globally, educating Americans about education and making sure world leaders keep their promises. If you want to know more information about us, please visit our website: www.schoolgirlsunite.org. Oh, and one last thought: GIRLS RULE!