Eighth Blog Post

       Girls Learn International, a CHS chapter of an national organization, is what I am using for my genius project.  Right now our club is starting to plan a spring fundraiser.  We've spent the last few meetings researching ideas under four different categories: girl's health and clean water; technology, arts, and media; school supplies, transportation, and improvements; and human rights, leadership, and empowerment.

       GLI partners with countries that still have fewer girls than boys completing secondary school.   After we pick a category we want to support, we fundraise for it, and then send that money to GLI, who picks the place that most needs it.  It's a pretty cool process and we've been finding some amazing projects under each category like organizations that buy girls bikes with baskets so they can get to school themselves, or give girls a kit that contains reusable pads, and also functions as a way to wash their pads, and hang them to dry, or even just raising money for solar panels to power much needed technology.

       Doing this research and learning about all these projects has made me realize even further how much actually goes into a school.  It takes a lot of money and resources to create a well functioning and effective school were girls can receive a good education.  Fixing what seem like simple problems like transportation to school, or giving girls health classes and supplies to make it so they don't have to miss weeks of school due to their period, or even donating less than a dollar for pencils really makes a difference.  I can't wait til we decide what we want to fundraise for, and start planning.

Seventh Blog Post

I read "I Am Malala" by Malala Yousafzai, which is all about her story as a Pakistani girl trying to get an education in a town run by the Taliban.  Today, Malala is a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, and has become a strong voice for young women around the world.  Without her own resolve and determination to get an education, she would never have been able to do what she does today, and become the inspiration that she is.

Sixth Blog Post

"Investing in Girls' Education Drives Development"

An article from the Basic Education Coalition's website.

This article uses mainly logos to make it's argument for girls education.  It uses statistics about the benefits of ensuring girls' education and lists of facts that prove how important basic education is in general, and then how that pertains to benefiting girls, and thus everyone.  

S- a member of the Basic Education Coalition

O- ignorance about girls education in less developed countries

A- the general public, or anyone doing research on this topic

P- to persuade people that educating girls benefits them, society, and the economy

S- Benefits of educating girls

Tone- factual, important, logical, reasonable, persuasive

Fifth Blog Post

Shabana Basij-Rasikh is the founder of the first female boarding school in Afghanistan. She is
the cofounder of SOLA, an international campaign for women's education.  She's a
Middlebury college graduate.  But this isn't where she started. She began her education by
disguising herself as a boy and sneaking to a secret school every day.  She and almost a 
hundred other girls risked their lives every day to go to school and lived with the fear that the 
Taliban may be following them or find out where they lived.  Shabana was most influenced by
her parents, who believed that education was the most important possession you could possibly
own.  Her father used to tell her that "You can lose everything, your money, your house, your
belongings. But they can never take what's in your mind".  Shabana talks about how she lived
in danger for her whole childhood, but she believes her life would have continued that way, and
been even more dangerous, had she not gotten an education.
Shabana's story further proves the importance of girl's education.  Educated women know
more about reproductive health and safety, and boost the economy.  There's no reason not
to educate girls and women, and, proven by Shabana, no matter what laws or restrictions
are in place, girls will get an education no matter what.