The Teach For All Global Girls’ Education Fellowship kicked-off its second year last week with a virtual gathering of nearly 80 teachers, alumni, and staff members from network partners in Bangladesh, Colombia, Ghana, India, Malaysia, Nepal, and Nigeria. Representatives of Girl Rising, a global campaign for girls' education and empowerment, also joined the call to share more about the movement’s work and the tools it offers to educators around the world to advance girls’ education.

United by a shared vision of a world where all children can fulfill their potential, Teach For All and Girl Rising have partnered to improve and advocate for gender equality and girls’ education. Through the Global Girls’ Education Fellowship, we’ll be collaborating to inform and inspire network participants, alumni, staff members, and students to develop innovative solutions to challenges facing girls in their countries and work together to break down the barriers that are holding girls back.

“Our Global Girls’ Education Fellowship has provided our network partners with an opportunity to deeply understand the challenges that their female students face in pursuit of an education,” shared Teach For All’s Head of STEM and Girls’ Education, Janell N. Catlin. “The Fellowship creates a space for us to discuss and implement solutions to these challenges in order to support girls and young women in classrooms across the globe. It is truly exciting to partner with Girl Rising to meet the goals we have for our global network.”

Girl Rising began nine years ago, when The Documentary Group, an independent producation, was approached to research a project on how to end global povery. Through the research they concluded that advancing girls’ education would be the single best solution. The film Girl Rising, which tells the stories of nine inspiring girls from nine different countries, evolved into a global campaign with the aim of “changing minds, lives, and policy” that stand in the way of girls receiving the education they deserve. Girl Rising has developed a set a tools targeted at anyone advocating for girls’ education, and designed to inspire people to take action.

Girl Rising CEO, Christina Lowery, and Senior Producer, Kayce Freed Jennings, joined the virtual session along with Nidhi Dubey, Country Director for Girl Rising in India, who shared that in her country “girls are 75% less likely to survive as compared to their male siblings” and India is home to half of the world’s child brides. These problems, Nidhi explained, stem from deep-rooted patriarchal communities, in which teachers, and often girls themselves, internalize and normalize negative stereotypes and mindsets about women and girls. Girl Rising India is working with Teach For India and other organizations to change this reality.

Teach For All will be incorporating materials and strategies developed by Girl Rising (including the film, curriculum, and young adult book) into Global Girls’ Education Fellowship resources for Fellows to use in their classrooms and communities. In turn, Fellowship participants will share feedback and ideas with Girl Rising inspired by their projects and experiences working with their students.

“We are thrilled to be collaborating with you and can’t wait to learn from you about what resources work in your classrooms," Jennings shared with the Fellows.

Learn more about the Teach For All Global Girls’ Education Initiative and some of last year’s Fellowship projects in Bangladesh, Ghana, and India.