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"  Photo Credit: WISER International This content is provided in partnership with GUCCI Beauty for CHIME FOR CHANGE. The Situation Picture a young girl waking at dawn to make the two-hour trek to school. The road is long and treacherous, and sometimes teeming with militia. When the walk to school is more treacherous than a refugee camp in a conflict zone\u2014or children live in regions where schools simply doesn&amp;#039;t exist - scores of young girls enter the workforce instead of getting an education, and remain illiterate for the rest of their lives. According to the United Nations&amp;#039; Millennium Development Goals for 2015 report, women comprise two-thirds of illiterate adults around the world, a statistic that has remained largely unchanged for over two decades. Although various countries in East Asia, South Asia and the Pacific regions (China, Bangladesh and Indonesia) have made tremendous progress in closing the gender literacy gap, the statistics in Sub-Saharan Africa paint a bleak portrait. In that area, it&amp;#039;s projected that the poorest girls will not achieve universal primary school completion until 2086. The situation becomes increasingly dire for secondary schools, where a 50-year gap exists between when the richest boys complete school and when the poorest girls do, according to UNESCO . Now imagine if the young girl made the walk to school, a place with books and teachers who make more than $5 a day. The ripple effect of her learning how to read would be tremendous: UNESCO reports that when women are literate, there are 66% fewer maternal deaths, a 64% reduction in child marriages, and a more than 40% reduction in infectious diseases such as HIV. Countries that prioritize gender parity will reap the benefits: empowered, educated women who further enrich the societies in which they live. Making a Difference WISER International, a community development organization focused on the social empowerment of underprivileged girls, envisions a blossoming education system for girls in Kenya. WISER helps provide educational support for Kenyan girls in 14 schools so they can complete primary school and matriculate successfully to secondary school. Through its ongoing intervention, WISER provides education materials, trains teachers, holds academic events and arranges community engagement in its effort to educate girls. Click here to support WISER International&amp;#039;s effort to provide educational resources for Kenyan girls. To learn more about the Chime for Change campaign to convene, unite and strengthen the voices speaking out for girls and women around the world, visit chimeforchange.org. You can donate $5 to Chime for Change with the purchase of select Gucci fragrances. Just visit www.gucci.com. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/culture/a14542/every-girl-deserves-education/>