International Women's Day: Inspiring Literacy

This year's theme for International Women's Day is Connecting Girls and Inspiring Futures.  To me it is very clear what young women need to succeed: education and literacy. There are currently 793 million illiterate people in the world, and nearly 2/3 are women and girls. Overall, worldwide education of girls in primary schools are increasing, but there remains a significant gap in the continued education of females across the globe. From the many refugee women working to create better lives for themselves, to the future policy makers of the world, literacy enables all women with the empowering gifts of confidence and security for our futures.

I would like to take this International Women's Day to thank my mother. She was never an avid reader but always expressed to me what it felt like to read a book and get lost in another world. She always had a fascination with words and language, but felt stifled by her inability to use them properly to express herself. With this she instilled in me a ceaseless curiosity and propensity to read and write, and to explore the potential of my knowledge. Your support of these personal endeavors of mine means more to me than you know. Thank you.