On this Independence Day, VeraCloud celebrates the power of education to liberate and empower girls & women across the US & around the globe.

On this Independence Day we celebrate the power of education to liberate and empower girls and women around the globe.  As the First Lady says: “when we give girls the chance to learn, they will seize it. We also know that educating girls doesn't just transform their life prospects -- it transforms the prospects of their families, communities, and nations as well. Studies show that girls who are educated earn higher salaries -- 10 to 20 percent more for each additional year of secondary school -- and sending more girls to school and into the workforce can boost an entire country's GDP. Educated girls also marry later, have lower rates of infant and maternal mortality, and are more likely to immunize their children and less likely to contract malaria and HIV.”

Access to education, paired with access to economic opportunity can and will change the world: we applaud and support First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let Girls Learn initiative. #education #access #opportunity #inclusion

In March 2015, the President and First Lady launched Let Girls Learn, which brings together the Department of State, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Peace Corps, and the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), as well as other agencies and programs like the U.S. President’s Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), to address the range of challenges preventing adolescent girls from attaining a quality education that empowers them to reach their full potential. Let Girls Learn combines the necessary political will, diplomacy, grassroots organizing, and development expertise to create lasting change.

Let Girls Learn is a United States government initiative to ensure adolescent girls get the education they deserve. Around the world, girls face complex physical, cultural, and financial barriers in accessing education. As a girl grows older the fight to get an education becomes even harder. Her family must be willing to pay school fees. She may have a long, unsafe walk to school. She may be forced to marry. And she often lacks the support she needs to learn.

Yet, we know that educating girls can transform lives, families, communities, and entire countries. When girls are educated, they lead healthier and more productive lives. They gain the skills, knowledge, and confidence to break the cycle of poverty and help strengthen their societies. It’s time to Let Girls Learn.