Celebrate International Day of the Girl 2014

October 9, 2014

International Day of the Girl Child is an opportunity for The Hunger Project to raise our collective voice about the rights of girl children so we can put an end to the discrimination that leads to girls eating last and least, being forced into early marriage and dropping out of school.

In 2011, the International Day of the Girl Child was designated by a resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly to recognize girls’ rights and highlight the unique challenges girls face worldwide. And since 2000, The Hunger Project in Bangladesh has been one of the leading voices in this mission with National Girl Child Day.

This year’s Day of the Girl theme is ‘Empowering Adolescent Girls: Ending the Cycle of Violence’. We know that when girls and women stop being subjugated and persecuted on the basis of their gender, they can be free to be educated and healthy – and that, as a result, the whole of society benefits.

Did You Know?

In India, 47% of all adolescent girls are underweight.
Nearly half of all girls in developing countries become mothers before they are 18 years old.
50,000 adolescent girls die annually during childbirth, making it the number one killer of girls between age 15-19.
1 out of every 3 girls is married by the age of 18.
1 in every three adolescent girls in a union/relationship experiences violence at the hands of her husband/partner.
On average, girls receive only six years of formal education in their lives.
A child born to a mother who can read is 50% more likely to survive past age five.
Improved education of girls alone was responsible for a 43% total reduction in undernutrition across 63 countries between 1971 and 1995.
When given equal access to resources and education, women can bring down the number of hungry people worldwide by 16%.