Hello all, and welcome to 2018—year three of the Thousand Girls Initiative!
We’re nearing the halfway point of our push to empower a new generation of educated Guatemalan women, and we’d like to step back to re-examine an essential question: WHY.
Why is education important to you? Why do you believe that all children—boys and girls—deserve to go to school?
Why do we—that is you and the entire CoEd family—invest time, energy, capital, sweat, and tears to make sure that more Guatemalan girls are in the classroom?
In other words, why do you #StandforGirls in Guatemala?
Throughout 2018, we’ll be sharing what you, our students, their families, their teachers, and our staff members have to say in response to this question.
To kick things off, we’d like to ask some questions to get your thoughts going:
- Do you have a loved one who fought or struggled to stay in school? Perhaps your mom, grandma, aunt, sister, or friend? What motivated them?
- Were you supported or were you challenged on your own educational path? What was that like?
- When you sat at your desk in school, how many girls were in the classroom with you? How would things have been different if fewer girls had had the opportunity to be there? (If you attended an all-boys school, skip to the next question!)
- Think of one woman who inspires you. Did she have the opportunity to receive an education? How would her life and the lives of those around her be different if she had been able / unable to study as long as she wished?
Mind racing yet? We’re itching to hear from you. Here are three ways you can respond:
- Share your answer in the comments below,
- Email info@coeduc.org, or
- Post on Facebook with the hashtag #StandforGirls and tag @CooperativeforEducation
We may feature your answer on our social media channels in the coming months!
Looking for more inspiration? Read CoEd supporter Carol Cain’s answer to one of the questions above:
“As someone who has personally experienced poverty on an extreme level as a child, I can say that the thing that always gave me hope and ambition was the promise I had of an education. Whatever might have been limited in my childhood, education was not one of these things. There was always someone in my life willing and able to make sure that I went to school. That changes everything. How we dream, how we aspire, how we grow, how we think, and how we live.”
– Carol Cain, CoEd supporter
