The Girl Effect: Watch This Video
by Britt Bravo

Did you know:

" • An extra year of primary school boosts girls’ eventual wages by 10 to 20 percent. An extra year of secondary school: 15 to 25 percent.
(George Psacharopoulos and Harry Anthony Patrinos, “Returns to Investment in Education: A Further Update,” Policy Research Working Paper 2881 [Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 2002].)

• Research in developing countries has shown a consistent relationship between better infant and child health and higher levels of schooling among mothers.


(George T. Bicego and J. Ties Boerma, “Maternal Education and Child Survival: A Comparative Study of Survey Data from 17 Countries,” Social Science and Medicine 36 (9) [May 1993]: 1207–27.)

• When women and girls earn income, they reinvest 90 percent of it into their families, as compared to only 30 to 40 percent for a man.
(Phil Borges, with foreword by Madeleine Albright, Women Empowered: Inspiring Change in the Emerging World [New York: Rizzoli, 2007], 13.) "


These statistics come from The Girl Effect, a web site created by the Nike Foundation and NoVo Foundation to educate people about the positive impact educating and empowering girls can have on a community. In addition to the video on their home page, which I recommend you take a couple minutes to watch, they have created four short videos about girls who are either benefiting from, or could benefit from The Girl Effect.

The one question I had, as did Blogging for a Better Tomorrow, and some of the commenters on the ONE.org blog, is how authentic is this campaign given Nike's track record with sweatshops? Does anyone know what the most up to date information is on how they are doing in that regard?

Whatever the motivation is behind the campaign, the ideas behind it are important to support. You can get involved with The Girl Effect by going to girleffect.org, sharing the web site and videos, learning more about the issue, and donating to a project that support girls on The Girl Effect's Global Giving page.

Columnist Nicholas Kristof had a column in the New York Times, The Luckiest Girl, around a similar idea last week. In his accompanying blog post, Buying Goats and Other Aid he recommends foreign aids groups you can support. The 350+ people (wow!) who commented on his post made recommendations as well.

Hat tip to my pal Noel Brewer, who forwarded me the video.

BlogHer Contributing Editor, Britt Bravo, also blogs at Have Fun * Do Good, and NetSquared

Submitted by Britt Bravo (view blog) on Fri, 07/11/2008 - 4:12pm

Comments

 

I love this!

As I just posted in "What's Hot," I just HATE preachy do-gooder videos that make me feel guilty for being alive. This is not one of those. Brilliant find Britt -- thank you so much for blogging it. A 90% ROR on an investment? Rare in this market! And I'm particularly happy that Global Giving is doing their donations -- given GG's guarantee your money is going to get where they say it will or they'll reimburse you, that means a lot.

I don't know how Nike's doing re: the sweatship factor, but hopefully someone from that brand watches this space and we'll hear from them, as well as external experts who do. (Note: I just tried to access Nike.com but couldn't get past their homepage - perhaps it requires a plug-in?)

Here are two promising articles from sources I like, but they are dated years ago:

2005, Corpwatch.org: http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12463

2001, Wired: http://www.wired.com/techbiz/media/news/2001/07/45218

Now, since you watch this space as a non-profit expert, I have a question: Who else is working in this space? Is The Girl Effect reinventing the wheel by doing this -- albeit with huge support like these companies bring? Who's the leader in raising money for girls? We've certainly tried with BlogHers Act.

Thanks!

Lisa Stone
BlogHer Co-founder
Surfette

Submitted by Lisa Stone on Sat, 07/12/2008 - 07:28
 

Other Orgs Funding Girls

Thanks for highlighting the post, Lisa!

Although they are not girl specific, two organizations that come to mind are Women for Women International and Global Fund for Women. 

Of course UNICEF funds girls' education. 

Three Cups of Tea author, Greg Mortenson, builds schools with his organization Central Asia Institute, "to promote and support community-based education, especially for girls, in remote regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan." Nicholas Kristof wrote about their work in his July 13th NYT column, It takes a school, not missiles.

The Education Partnership for Children of Conflict funds education for children affected by war, genocide, displacement, etc. 

The list goes on and on.

Additions: HumanKindMedia recommends Camfed.
Humanities on Demand pointed to Cambodian Arts and Scholarship Foundation

Submitted by Britt Bravo on Mon, 07/14/2008 - 11:59
 

Great video. Tears came to my eyes!

It's amazing how much words can effect us. That entire video was just text and music but it moved me. I loved it!

I am a firm believer in treating each person as a valued individual and I believe it is the only true way to change the world.

Thanks for sharing!

monawea(Mona Weathers) is the Founder of HerProBlog.COM

, a website dedicated to helping women create and maintain professional quality blogs.

Submitted by monawea on Sat, 07/12/2008 - 16:25
 

Some Nike thoughts - reposting from my
comment on Britt's Blog

Britt - thanks for highlighting the Girl Effect and for the shout-out to the GlobalGiving take action page.

Your question about Nike is fair. Let me just say that we at GG are really
pleased to work with Nike, and I had the chance to spend time in
Beaverton recently, including with their extraordinary VP of CSR,
Hannah Jones. They are the real deal. Hannah reports to the CEO, and
they have armies of folks focused on CSR. Every brand and every region
has CSR folks embedded. They spent several years after her arrival
getting the supply chain stuff fixed, while - among other
environmental, and workplace initiatives - also spinning off the Nike
Foundation (which is focused on adolescent girls in developing
countries, and where the Girl Effect campaign is housed), and
developing Let Me Play, an innovative program of investing in Sport and Development Projects around the world that GG is also really psyched to be involved with.

For an outsider's take on the supply chain issues, folks can check out this website post and can see the detail Nike has up at their CSR website.

Hope this is helpful.
Donna @ GlobalGiving

PS Lisa - thanks! 

 

Submitted by DCis Me on Sun, 07/13/2008 - 11:51
 

Nike Info

Thanks Donna for the information about Nike. It is very helpful.  I received an email from Jim Keady, Director, Educating for Justice who wrote,

"I have been working on the Nike sweatshop issue for 10 years, full-time for the past 8. I completed two research trips to Indonesia this past year. Not much has changed on the key issue of wages - the other key issue is collective bargaining and not much has changed with this either. However, Nike's PR on these issues has changed tremendously and they have gone a long way to get people to feel that 'Nike took care of those sweatshop issues.' If you want to learn more about my history on this issue, check out www.myspace.com/behindtheswoosh to watch a few videos and you can check out my company website at www.educatingforjustice.org"

My guess is that both sides are true.  The folks at the Nike Foundation really care about what they do and the company is trying to do things better, but that they are still a huge corporation trying to produce things for the lowest price possible to make the biggest profit.

When corporations and nonprofits get involved there will always be compromises on both sides, but ultimately, if more people's lives are made better than worse by the partnership, I think it is a positive thing.

Submitted by Britt Bravo on Mon, 07/14/2008 - 12:04