Worldwide Girl Rising campaign promotes female empowerment in UAE
Two chapters of the moving ‘Girl Rising‘ film were shown during an event held at Capital Club in Dubai. Following the film, Nicola Hewitt, the Middle East Advisor for Girl Rising (GR), addressed the guests on the influential GR movement.
The film, which has already raised over $6-million alongside the campaign, is part of a progressive, worldwide movement, which uses the power of storytelling to share the simple reality that educating girls can transform societies. The two chapters of the film presented were those of Haiti and Afghanistan, both of which highlight major issues facing females living within those countries, including how attending school has a positive impact on the health of girls and how females are problem-solvers.
The overall drive of the movement is to draw worldwide attention to the fact that equality between the genders, starting with equal and robust education, is not only a necessity, but also an extremely positive step for global development.
Following the film, Hewitt discussed the campaign that started 3 years ago and the film, which has been viewed in over 148 countries and translated into 30 different languages.
“You can’t tell a story unless it’s told by the people themselves on-ground,” said Hewitt. “We found a good Afghan writer and Haitian writer to pen the story and write it from the girls’ perspective. Then we reached out to people in Hollywood to narrate the film.” With a specific focus on the MENA region going forward, the GR campaign aims to create a think tank to address the challenges faced by women in the region.
The GR campaign for female empowerment and equality has been supported by many global partners, including The White House, The George Washington University, CNN, Hewlett-Packard, Save the Children, Priyanka Chopra, the Government of India and many more.
Among the movement’s other influential partners is US First Lady Michelle Obama, who contacted the Girl Rising team directly to see how she could help. Out of that initial interaction came the ‘Let Girls Learn’ initiative, which looks at the number of girls worldwide who are not in school and examines the reason for non-attendance, which ultimately leads to their inability to reach their full potential as adults.
The initiative then launched the celebrity-backed #62MillionGirls campaign, which was hugely successful and created over 1 billion potential impressions in just three days. High profile participants included Chris Martin, Beyoncé and Bono.
