By Laura Haight
DFW Communications Director

Girls are more likely to be left behind, left out, left off – just because they are girls.

This simple fact has been the focus of complex global initiatives undertaken since 2002 that include the Millennium Development Goals and UNESCO’s Education for All campaign. Since then, progress has been made toward parity in educational opportunities at the primary level, but a massive UNESCO global report on gender inequality, notes that those drop off at the secondary and college levels.

The UNESCO report highlights the key role that education plays in the struggle to eliminate gender inequality around the world.

On Oct. 11, the world will celebrate the 2nd International Day of the Girl and it is equally fitting that the focus of the global commemoration will be on Innovating for Girls’ Education.

Moving the needle on this essential building block toward improving the lives and futures of women and girls in the developing world is a bedrock goal for Dining for Women. It is worth noting that of the six programs DFW has selected to fund in the first half of 2014, five of them are either focused solely on or have a large component for girls’ education.

We have invited three of our featured programs that focus on educating girls to join us to explore this topic and how DFW’s efforts of supporting organizations that strive to provide educational opportunities and remove barriers to girls’ education can make a difference.

The Maasai Girls Education Fund, Nepal Youth Foundation and Starfish One by One will be participating along with Marsha Wallace, co-founder of DFW, Jamye Cooper, executive director, and Maggie Aziz, program director, on a live-streamed presentation on “Girls Education: What Works” on Oct 11, at 2 p.m. ET. Following the live event, a recording will be available on our Events channel on YouTube.

We look forward to having this opportunity too spread the word about the importance of girls education and the programs that are striving every day to achieve that goal.