Last Tuesday, First lady, Michelle Obama, announced a new effort that should address the issue of why over 60 million girls, across the developing world, are not in school. These girls are blocked from an education with barriers that most boys do not have to face. However, girls also face many other extra hurdles based on surrounding factors, making this issue specific to each community. Therefore, Obama addressed how the solution would need to be tailor-made. “You have told me that whatever obstacles these girls face-whether it’s school fees, or violence or cultural beliefs that girls simply aren’t worthy of an education-you’ve said that these problems will not be fixed from on high. That these are community challenges that call for community solutions,” said Obama. After this statement, Obama unveiled the initiative for the Peace Corps to work at the “grassroots level” by recruiting and training about 650 additional volunteers to focus specifically on adolescent girls’ access to education. Volunteers will be charged with starting conversations in the communities to find out why girls are unable to attend school, and then they will work with leaders, parents, and the girls to remove these obstacles. The projects could range from establishing tutoring programs to starting a dialog about the consequences of child marriage in that community. This Peace Corps expansion is a huge component of a larger program that Obama is starting called Let Girls Learn, which aims to decrease the educational disparities between boys and girls in developing countries.
Contributor: Chelsea Edirisuryia