On July 12, RESULTS Educational Fund in partnership with the Global Campaign for Education released an innovative report, “Make it Right: Ending the Crisis in Girls Education,” which explores the systemic barriers that girls face once they are enrolled in school.

Make it Right takes a holistic approach to probe deeper into the legal, policy and budget frameworks needed to achieve gender equality and equity in education. It also provides key recommendations that the international community and global governments must heed in order to make education a reality for both boys and girls.

According to the report, 53 percent of out-of-school children are girls. Although this figure represents an improvement since 2000, stark gender disparities still hinder progress in meeting the developmental goal of achieving gender parity in education. The report argues that statistics which highlight the rise in girls’ primary school enrollment often fail to capture the true experience of millions of girls. Beyond the enrollment numbers are the countless stories of girls forced to drop out of school for a myriad of factors, such as childhood marriage, gender-based violence or the responsibilities associated with domestic chores. The plight of girls is further exacerbated by the constraints brought on by poverty. Given that schools are microcosms of society, it is no surprise that gender disparities are prevalent in schools around the world.

The bleak reality of gender inequality in education is further revealed by the following statistics: in 47 out of 54 African countries, girls have a less than 50 percent chance of going to secondary school. Around the world, two-thirds of illiterate adults are women. Denying girls a quality education is a human rights violation that denies whole families and communities the benefits derived from educating girls. Development experts would agree that educating girls is an effective poverty-alleviating tool that benefits households, communities and societies —consider that children born to educated mothers are two times more likely to survive past the age of five.

I urge global advocates to take action to make it right for girls and ensure education is a right — not a privilege — for the millions of out-of-school girls. Read more on girls’ education and learn how you can take action. To learn more about RESULTS, please follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

-Richard Adrien, RESULTS Educational Fund

Last month, I had a whirlwind tour of the United States to speak about the importance of getting every child in school and how we can achieve universal primary education by creating a Global Fund for Education. I traveled to 5 states, met with over a dozen members of Congress’s offices, and even kicked a soccer ball around with Jessica Alba in Washington, DC – all in order to tout the importance of providing a free basic education for all children. As a former school teacher, eventually the Director of Basic Education in Kenya, and now that I am retired I work full-time to bring educational opportunities to the poorest children in Nairobi – I know the need first-hand.

Part of my story starts in 2003, when Kenya’s newly elected government was able to abolish school fees – approximately $50 a year was the main barrier preventing children from being in school. Within a week, a million children and even some adult learners showed up to enter the classrooms, eager to have the education that they couldn’t previously afford. By the end of the year, 2 million children who had not been able to go to school turned up in the classrooms ready to learn. Kenya now has 91 percent of its children in classrooms, but we are still unable to reach the hardest to reach – that last nine percent. Barriers like orphan-headed households, lack of infrastructure in slums, and lack of clean water and sanitation for girls to be able to attend schools still prohibit reaching all of the children.

Kenya is a success story in many ways – overnight we made primary school free, and with the help of the international community we were able to train and deploy teachers, strengthen school accounting systems and guarantee the right to an education. This story could be duplicated in many countries, if we knew that our international partners like the United States would join our struggle to achieve the United Nations Millennium Development Goal of ensuring that children everywhere are able to go to school by 2015. The deadline for this goal is quickly approaching but the United States is in a unique position to lead on this issue: it has the money, the will, and the power to achieve this objective. Kenya’s grandson, President Obama, has promised to create a Global Fund for Education which will fill the education deficit. Ignorance is in fact the greatest expense – because universal education saves lives, it reduces the risk of civil war, malnutrition and HIV/AIDS, and it is well-known that literacy is a prerequisite for economic growth.

But it is up to you, America, to build the political will of your elected officials to bring the gift of knowledge and empowerment to the poorest children of the world. A great way to get involved is to take part in events like the National Day of Action on December 10th. Organizations like the Global Campaign for Education, 1 GOAL, RESULTS, ONE and many other coalition partners are doing everything they can to mobilize citizens across the country to call on their leaders to do their part. This day provides a great opportunity to spread the message that through universal education, we can reduce poverty, save lives, and promote a more stable, secure world. During the Day of Action, thousands of people across the country will call and write to President Obama urging him to provide $2 billion in the 2011 budget to create a Global Fund for Education . Through phone calls, petitions, and media outreach, Americans can send a message to the world that building sustainable solutions to the greatest development challenges of our day is possible through global education. To get involved, go to www.campaignforeducationusa.org.

Today’s children will be tomorrow’s leaders, doctors, scientists, lawyers and innovators and we can’t afford to deny them of their destiny. I am proud to be partnering with the ONE Campaign and the US Chapter of the Global Campaign for Education in their mission to give the more than 75 million children worldwide the opportunities and tool they need to succeed in today’s global environment by sending them to school and I hope you will join me.

On top of everyone STANDING UP, our day together focused on the challenges of extreme poverty, the importance of achieving the Millennium Development Goals, and publicly urging our elected officials to support proven successful life-saving programs like the Global Fund. There was also importance placed on several advocacy related functions that everyone can participate in including writing letters to your Member of Congress.

In addition to learning more about how we can be a part of the solution, everyone was fortunate enough to listen to Dr. Paul Farmer, founder of Partners in Health and subject of the book Mountains Beyond Mountains, speak live about what it takes to make a movement to end poverty.

People in attendance seemed inspired and ready to take an action – whether it be attending a meeting with a member of Congress or simply spreading the word to friends and colleagues about the importance of advocacy and demonstrating their commitment to fight for the poorest people in the world.

Joanne Carter, our executive director here at RESULTS and RESULTS Educational Fund (REF), was recently selected for a two year term as the Board Member for the Developed Country NGO Delegation to the Global Fund Board.

While we couldn’t be more proud of Joanne here at RESULTS/REF, her appointment to the Global Fund Board presents a tremendous opportunity to all of us involved in this work. Sitting on the Board allows Joanne the opportunity to leverage existing North and South partnerships, while also building new partnerships, for the mobilization of resources to address the Global Fund’s funding gap of US $4-9 billion and providing support for high-quality proposals to the Global Fund.

Coincidentally, the Global Fund faces this multi-billion dollar funding gap in no small part because of its success — countries are now able to do more to tackle these disease of poverty, so they are asking for more. Filling the Global Fund’s multi-billion dollar resource gap will require a bold, coordinated resource mobilization strategy. While a seemingly daunting task, the more we’re able to collaborate in our advocacy efforts, the greater the chance that Global Fund receives the full funding that it needs.

Joanne brings to the Board over 17 years of experience directing advocacy campaigns that have mobilized billions of dollars for health and development programs, and I know that she looks forward to her continued partnership with many of you as she takes her seat on the Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

-Blair Hinderliter, Communications Director, RESULTS

It is one thing to tell members of Congress about the suffering caused by deadly diseases like tuberculosis in the world’s poorest countries. It is another thing to bring graphic evidence of the horror of TB to the esteemed halls of the greatest legislative building in the country.

The U.S. Capitol recently hosted a powerful exhibit of photographs by award-winning photojournalist James Nachtwey of patients suffering from extensively drug-resistant (XDR) TB around the world. The gripping black and white photographs were displayed first at a reception attended by lawmakers, activists, and pharmaceutical companies; and also in the Rotunda of the Capitol building from June 10-11.

Mr. Nachtwey spent a year documenting XDR-TB as a recipient of the prestigious TED Prize. TED (which stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design), awards $100,000 to three people each year who want to “make a wish to change the world.” Mr. Nachtwey, a noted war photographer, wished to document a global health crisis that desparately needed reporting. He chose XDR-TB, a highly dangerous form of TB that emerged in recent years due to inattention to treating “normal” tuberculosis before it mutated into a more drug-resistant form. 40,000 cases of XDR-TB are estimated to occur annually. Overall, 1.7 million people each year die of some form of tuberculosis.

The exhibit at the Capitol was sponsored by TED, the citizens’ advocacy group RESULTS, and the pharmaceutical companies Eli Lilly and BD. At the event Rep. Eliot Engel (D-NY), who was instrumental in getting the Stop TB Now Act passed as part of the PEPFAR reauthorization last year and securing $4 billion in TB investment, praised the groups for their work in fighting TB and Mr. Nachtwey for capturing the human toll of the disease. “Most members of Congress have no idea how many people are dying of this,” he said. “We can move in the right direction, we can do what we need to do, but there’s still so much work to be done.”

In response to the underfunded TB epidemic, Representatives Donald Payne (D-NJ) and Don Young (R-AK) are circulating a letter this week in support of increased appropriations for global TB programs.

Another member of Congress who has long been an advocate for fighting global TB, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH), also spoke. He told of the trips he had taken with RESULTS’ executive director to TB clinics in the prisons of Moscow, and the critical role activists play in fighting the disease. He praised RESULTS activists as “people that care about their communities fighting for something they care about, and putting this issue on the national agenda with members of Congress…who basically do what they tell us to do!”

Mr. Nachtwey hoped that his photographs would inspire compassion for those living with XDR-TB. “Because people are suffering, does not mean they don’t express dignity. If people are afraid, it does not mean they lack courage. When people are in pain, it does not mean they don’t have hope,” he said.

“I’ve seen people who literally have nothing left, yet they continue to struggle. They have not given up. And if they don’t give up, how could anyone in the outside world ever dream of losing hope?”

-Robyn Shepherd, Communications Officer for RESULTS Educational Fund

Activities won’t be limited to the conference site. The last day of the conference will be devoted to meetings with our activists and their members of Congress, and meetings at the World Bank and IMF for our international partners. At the end of each day, my colleagues and I will host optional walking tours of DC, under-30 socials, and karaoke dance parties to make sure that participants can have some fun during their time in DC.

RESULTS and RESULTS Educational Fund provides our partners in the U.S. and around the world with the tools they need to get informed about fighting poverty both in the U.S. and abroad, and how to engage their policymakers and editorial boards. We focus on campaigns pertaining to global health, education, health care for all, microcredit, and ending hunger through nutrition programs. To learn more about us, or to register for our conference, please visit our website. I hope to see you there!

-Robyn Shepherd, RESULTS

• April 21-22: Save the Children’s Advocacy Day 2009
• April 26-29: Sojourner’s Mobilization to End Poverty
• May 5-6: CARE’s National Conference and Celebration
• May 26-30: Global Health Council’s 36th Annual International Conference on Global Health
• June 14-16: Bread for the World’s Gathering: Rejoice. Hope. Act.
• June 20-23: RESULTS’ International Conference: Empowering People to End Poverty

–Margaret McDonnell, US NGO Partnerships and Faith Relations Team, ONE

We got to learn about RESULTS and hear one of their volunteer’s amazing story. Having lived in Africa and seen social, political and moral injustices first hand, she decided that she wanted to learn more about how she could make a difference and take a step forward towards doing what is right. It was inspiring.

The best part of the event however was hearing the keynote speaker, Congresswoman Betty McCollum, passionately talk about the issues of poverty. We were sitting towards the front of the room and upon seeing our ONE t-shirts she recognized us, saying that she often works with ONE in Washington. She came up to me, put her hand on my shoulder and said “Thanks for being here, I know you guys will help with the maternal health bill that I’m working on in Washington”. Congresswoman McCollum spoke about poverty and how important it was that volunteers are standing up for the voiceless and faceless victims of it all around the world. Betty McCollum talked about some of the successes in the fight against poverty and noted the importance of helping our “neighbors, not just across the street or across the river, but across the ocean”.

We gave Rep. Betty McCollum a ONE wristband and thanked her for her continued support. She thanked us for ONE’s work and said that it was always nice to see ONE volunteers coming out and showing fresh energy in the fight against extreme poverty.

We left the event reassured that our elected leaders care and that with their support we can truly make a difference.

-Tzviatko Chiderov and Reena Dhake, ONE Twin Cities Members

Your congregation, your faith community, your place of worship can make a huge difference in the mission to end extreme global poverty and eliminate global diseases. Of course, you know this already. That’s why you are reading this post.

You also know that the coming months are a crucial time to make a difference. We’ll be electing a president and new members of Congress. After the election, priorities and policies will be set from among all the campaign commitments that have been made. ONE Sabbath helps your congregation engage effectively in the coming months by providing resources for worship services, youth groups, religious ed classes and small group discussions.

The ONE Sabbath effort includes Jewish and Christian congregations and encompasses ONE Sadaqa in the Muslim community and ONE Seva in the Hindu community. Congregations across the U.S. have been creative in incorporating ONE Sabbath into their services and events. We invite you to add your creativity to the cause.

The ONE Sabbath page links it all together. You can sign up, watch the latest faith videos, get the materials, and tell others. Please join in.

Mark