Global Girls Alliance: Changing the world of education one girl at a time

Michelle Obama, American lawyer, university administrator and writer that served as the first African-American First Lady of the United States from 2009 to 2017 to the 44th U.S. President, Barack Obama, understands the battle that girls go through. 

At a young age, girls tend to learn from society that they are expected to succeed only when it is convenient. Girls prematurely fight to survive discrimination, harassment, gender roles, stereotyping and the comprehension of body types. 

Obama plays a significant role in empowering young girls into developing beyond the expectations that society holds. 

According to YourStory.com, Obama said, “Women and girls can do whatever they want. There is no limit to what we as women can accomplish.” 

Obama launched Global Girls Alliance (GGA) for education on Oct. 11, 2018. It aims to support more than 1,500 grassroots organizations combating the challenges girls encounter in their communities. 

The alliance will feature social fundraising to help young females. Obama is positively influencing the success of young girls due to the fact that success at an early age creates wisdom, freedom and secures future success. 

This creation is beneficial for present and future girls because it encourages the value of education at a young age. 

According to Associated Press News, Obama said, “When you educate a girl, you educate a family, a community, a country.” The GGA website also states that, today, more than 98 million adolescent girls around the world are not in school. “That’s a lot of empty desks—and a lot of dreams that are being cut short,” according to the Obama foundation.  

When one girl gains knowledge, it furthers the opportunity for her to enlighten those around her. This also provides the opportunity for a girl to speak her mind and explain substantial information from a girl’s viewpoint. 

The GGA is also a positive movement toward freedom. The website provides a video of girls singing “Think” by Aretha Franklin. 

Featured in the song is the power of the word freedom. This conveys that girls will find freedom from anything that is preventing them from health, happiness and their desired accomplishments. 

It is clever for the program to highlight such a powerful song sung by a “powerhouse” singer, according to the GGA website, because of how effective it can be to girls learning and growing in an atmosphere that can either be harmful or helpful to them. 

“Based on the experiences that I’ve been able to view from the women in my life, it is very clear to me that, without freedom of expression in a woman’s life, she won’t be able to succeed or achieve true happiness,” said a junior information systems major Isaiah Jean-Baptiste.”In the case of a close relative, she had negative experiences with men that had diminished her sense of self-esteem and self-worth. After joining a few women’s groups, she was able to express herself in a supportive environment. She reclaimed her self-identity and took monumental steps toward true happiness.” 

Baptiste conveys the importance and significance of freedom at a young age. 

In addition to the growth of freedom and education, the GGA also promotes future success for girls. The program offers funding and guidance for those who are seeking a better outcome. This agenda believes that, when girls get the opportunities they deserve, amazing things start to happen. The GGA believes that if poverty goes down, economies grow, families get stronger and babies are born healthier.

As a result, Obama is stopping at nothing to make sure that girls from all backgrounds receive the deserved chance at life. 

The GGA is motivation for girls to strengthen themselves with aid from each other and professionals and to make sure that girls no longer suffer from the previous discrimination that women faced due to their body shapes. 

Instead, girls embrace wisdom, freedom and a secured future with success. This is the step that needs to be taken so that all opportunities are equal for women.

—Andriana Rice- Gilmore

journalism major