Girls To Schools

As much as I enjoyed being on vacation from school, my favorite part of summer was towards the end. Simply because it meant it was time to go school supply shopping. It was the smell of never before used crayons, the bright colors of Lisa Frank folders; and, yes that one year, my Where is Waldo lunchbox! This past week, hundreds of thousands of students all across the United States began a brand new school year. And if I am completely honest, I may or may not have been a little jealous of the 9 year old at Target picking out matching notebooks and folders.

Yet, on a more serious note, this season has made me think of the other hundreds of thousands of students in the Dominican Republic. Those that will not be making their ways to classrooms. And it made me think of those that will attend, but that will have to walk a couple of miles to and from school everyday, with two pencils, one notebook, an empty stomach, and yet a determined will to make it through another year. It made me think of the young students that will not go to school because they have to many chores or their parents just do not care enough to make it happen for them. It made me think of young girls who will drop out of high school to get married or to be trafficked and forced into prostitution.

At Home of Change, our goal is to fight poverty and trafficking by educating and empowering girls and young women. We believe education is a right every child is entitled to. That is why we have started our Girls To Schools campaign.

Research shows if you educate a girl she will:

• Earn up to 25 percent more and reinvest 90 percent in her family.
• Be three times less likely to become HIV-positive.
• Have fewer, healthier children who are 40 percent more likely to live past the age of five.

The lack of education is among the main factors feeding the vulnerability of these children being trafficked for sexual exploitation and child labor practices. Education does not only provide empowerment, it is a strategic prevention tool.

We want to encourage you to bring passion, take action and be the change. Learn about our Girls To Schools campaign and how you can help.

"We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop." -Mother Teresa