One of the Because I am a Girl Campaign’s main initiatives is to support Girl Friendly Education. But what exactly does it mean and how is it different from other education initiatives? There are a number of unique factors that impact whether a girl is safe and supported at school, or even if she can [...]

Nobody likes talking about “that time of the month”. Its something we’d rather get through and keep to ourselves. But, in some parts of the world, menstruation can be a big obstacle to daily life, especially going to school. The way Marie Phillips puts it as she describes her trip to Plan’s projects in Uganda [...]

Girls (me included!) have a tendency to daydream about their big day, picking out colour schemes and perfect dresses in their head, and imagining walking down the aisle with Mr. Right. I want you to channel your wedding daydreams in a different direction today as we look at marriage as it is often experienced by [...]

“To survive on the streets, girls have to join one of the hundreds of gangs in Alexandria, whose joining fee is sexual abuse by older gang members. The authorities in Alexandria believe that girls who are not virgins, who are now ‘ladies’ are automatically the responsibility of their non-existent husbands. And this blind presumption means [...]

Join the world is standing up for the right of girls to say no to Female Genital Mutilation.  Today is International Day of Zero Tolerance to Female Genital Mutilation.  Maybe the most violent act that a girl is forced to undergo, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is a violent and unnecessary procedure and it always breaks [...]

Small is better: microloans go a long way in creating economic security in developing countries and Plan has many microcredit programs that help women and children to have sustainable incomes all while being involved in their communities.  But what is microcredit exactly? My professor once told this story to describe how microcredit works: On his [...]

El Salvador is a small Central American country where Plan has worked for more than 30 years.  It is also home to 13 girls that are part of the Because I am a Girl study (following 140 girls from birth to age nine in several countries around the world to see how the fact that [...]

Today I learned that its possible to see gender discrimination as divided into five areas: invisibility, capacity, physically and mentally, family and household responsibilities, and traditions and customs. Invisibility This includes pre-birth gender selection, lack of birth registration and public environments, which are unsafe for girls, marginalising them and discouraging their visibility. Capacity This affects [...]

Looking around the world you can see lots of statistics and numbers about women experiencing violence, inequality and poverty. A special Because I am a Girl report on The State of the World’s Girls says, “Discrimination against girls and young women remains deeply entrenched and widely tolerated throughout the world.  Many of the challenges girls [...]

I know that I take my flush toilet and hot running water for granted, but I shouldn’t. Almost half…that’s right, I said half… of the people in the world lack access to sanitation.  And almost 1 billion people still drink from unsafe water sources.  Its something that we don’t think about very often here, but [...]