Global Girl News: Dec 24, 2009

• Did you know that adolescent pregnancy and childbirth related deaths are the number one killer of 15-19 years old girls? Each year 2.2 to 4 million adolescents resort to unsafe abortion, and ninety nine per cent of maternal deaths occur in the developing world. It is important to note that 74 per cent are preventable. If you are interested to learn more, then take a look at this article.


• Have you ever thought about the ways in which HIV is linked to poverty and gender inequality? According to this study, there is a growing infection rate among young women and adolescent girls between the ages of 15 and 24. One third of all women living with HIV also fall within this age range. For example, in Sub-Saharan Africa, an overwhelming three-quarters of those living with HIV are female. Take a look at this study and let us know your thoughts!


• Here is a list of some very empowering stories and narratives on various gender related issues and concerns. I especially like Khushbu’s story, let us know which one is your favorite!

Season's Greetings

On behalf of everyone here at the Goal programme, we want to wish you a very happy holiday season and a joyous new year.

Alisha is taking off on a long holiday, but Marjan will be blogging a bit - there's still lots happening! We are closer than ever to announcing our new partners, and in India, the Chennai programme is launching and Delhi and Mumbai are rolling along.

Expect great things from us in 2010!

Global Girl News: Dec 14, 2009

• The Global Gender Gap Report 2009 is out! And the good news is that out of the 115 countries, more than two thirds have reported gains in the overall score, indicating that the world has become a better place in terms of gender equality. Do you agree? See how 'well' your country is doing!
• What are your views on child marriage? If you are interested to hear young girls’ marriage stories, then take a look at this article.
• If you have an hour to spare, then watch this powerful PBS documentary and learn more about child marriage.
• If you wanna take action in ending child marriage around the world, then you might find ‘Ending Child Marriage: a guide for global policy action’ toolkit very useful!

Global Girl News: December 4

• If you are interested in promoting justice and equality for girls, then you might want to check Justice for Girls out, and see in what ways they fight for social justice based on the idea that young women in poverty are the experts of their own experiences.
• Half the Sky is an exceptionally inspiring book on women’s life-stories and the challenges they face. Definitely check it out if you get a chance!
• Read Rani’s inspirational story and see in what ways Compassion beyond Borders is helping disadvantaged adolescent girls around the world to have access to education.
• Here is another article that confirms the importance of investing in young girls in order to reduce poverty.
  

Amazing new resource for data on girls

We were so excited to find out that Girls Discovered has finally launched! This amazing website pulls together global data on girls in an easy-to-use map format.

Data on girls is hard to gather for a number of reasons - lots of existing data sources aren't gender disaggregated (meaning we might know a number for "youth" but not boys and girls"), and girls can often be hidden from traditional methods of data collection (like, if a male researcher was sent out to a village, what are the chances someone is going to let their daughter talk to him alone?). So we are so thrilled that this new site has pulled together old and new data to easily access knowledge on girls and their status in the world. In the words of the ever eloquent GI Joe, "Knowing is half the battle."

Thanks to the Nike Foundation, UN Foundation, and our friends at Maplecroft who did such an amazing job with this database! It's absolutely a gamechanger.

World AIDS Day 2009

Today is World AIDS Day, and around the world people will be uniting in the fight against HIV and AIDS.

We at Goal believe that learning about how to protect yourself from HIV is one of the most critical life skills a girl can have. That's why we include HIV education in our curriculum.

Do something to mark the day: Get Protected.