As has been well-documented in this blog, Thursday 11th October 2012 was the very first ever International Day of the Girl. It was a day that was celebrated across the world; in its honour the London Eye turned pink, as did the Eiffel Tower and the Pyramids. Plan, the international children’s charity instrumental in making …
Category: History
Aug 10
Learning leadership from the most impoverished of women
I recently attended a dinner in aid of The Hunger Project and their work in seeking to end world hunger by empowering people – and especially women – in poverty-stricken areas to make change happen. In the course of their work, they have discovered something that should not surprise us, but might nonetheless challenge our …
Jul 05
Listen out for Malala
Next week, on Friday 12 July – her 16th birthday – Malala Yousafzai will talk to the United Nations, and we should all listen. Most people know Malala’s story: it began when she started to write a blog in 2009 for the BBC Urdu channel about life in Pakistan’s Swat Valley. At the time, private …
Jun 29
Nelson Mandela and the education of girls
Nelson Mandela is a truly great man, and much has been, and will be written, I am sure, in the coming weeks and months, about his many achievements in his home country of South Africa, and throughout Africa and the world. In and amongst all of these tributes, we should not forget his deep-rooted commitment …
Mar 11
Investing in women is the smart thing to do
With the celebrations and messages of International Women’s Day last week still reverberating, I thought I would devote this blog to reminding us why it is so important that we devote time, energy and resources to developing opportunities for women throughout the world. Justine Greening, the UK Government Secretary of State for International Development recently …
Mar 04
Stop telling girls untruths about Maths
Many international brows are beaten on a regular basis about why girls do not seem to choose to study Mathematics with the same enthusiasm or to the same level as boys, and the most recent manifestation of this was on the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald. A recent Australian study has shown that …
Oct 11
Today is the Day! International Day of the Girl
Today, Thursday 11th October 2012, is the very first International Day of the Girl, and it is most definitely worth celebrating. How this came about was in part because of extensive lobbying of the United Nations by Plan UK (part of Plan International), the charity which we have been supporting in school over the past …
Aug 31
Girls are the key to solving world poverty
Advance warning: Thursday 11th October 2012 is the first ever International Day of the Girl, and watch this space for more information. Investing in girls – in their education, above all – makes an enormous difference to their lives and to their lives of their communities, and it is because I have become so convinced …
Jun 13
The house of dreams: pioneering work for girls in a Mumbai orphanage
This week’s Sunday Telegraph magazine, Stella, contained an uplifting article by Sally Howard, which I have yet to find online; if you can find it and read it, do. In it, she describes a visit to Shraddhanand Mahilashram, an orphanage for girls in Mumbai, India, where girls are taught to be independent, confident young women, …
Jan 30
On being thankful
On Friday evening I travelled down to Mount House Prep School in Tavistock, Devon to give a talk at their Friday service, and it was a lovely occasion. Mount House is a delightful school – small, warm, friendly and well-supported by parents, even to the extent that they are regular contributors to the great school …