NEARLY 1000 AUSSIES HAVE ALREADY SIGNED UP TO DO IT IN A DRESS DESPITE COVID-19 LOCKDOWNS AND SOCIAL DISTANCING!
September 2020 // One Girl’s Do It In A Dress campaign has launched for the ninth year! One week into the campaign, we’ve had a whopping 939 people sign up with the aim of raising $200,000 to educate girls in two of the most challenging places in the world to be born a girl; Sierra Leone and Uganda.
More than 130 million girls around the world aren’t in school, simply because they were born a girl, so this year we’re asking Aussies to make sure Covid-19 doesn’t become yet another barrier preventing girls from getting an education and put on a school dress to raise money for those who can’t!
Whether it’s an everyday activity or something crazy, whatever you do, Do It In A Dress and complete your challenge in the lead up to 11th of October, International Day of the Girl.
Australians have surfed, hiked, cycled, snowboarded, pulled stunts and even gone to work in a dress, raising more than $4.5 million since 2011. These funds have helped One Girl provide access to quality education for girls; support female role models; provide health and menstrual hygiene training, teach girls about their sexual rights, safe relationships and respect for girls; and champion gender equality by raising the voices of women and girls across the world!
This year, necessity continues to be the mother of invention as lockdown laws for Victorians in particular force people to be even more creative with their challenges; dog-walking in a dress; hosting cooking shows in a dress and even walking the distance from Sierra Leone to Uganda (right from your home suburb) in a dress!
Raising money for girls’ education lifts families and communities out of poverty, helps fight climate change and creates a real difference in the world.
Every dollar raised can have an incredible impact on a girl’s life. $300, for example, is enough to send a girl to school for an entire year and provide her with everything she needs from books, a school bag, shoes, uniforms, and even a light by which to do her homework.
Right now, only 16% of girls born in Sierra Leone are likely to complete high school and a girl is more likely to be married before she turns 18 than she is to finish high school.
There’s no denying that when a girl has the opportunity to have an education she can change her world. An educated girl will marry later, have smaller and healthier families, help prepare her family for climatic disasters and, for every year a girl stays in school, she’ll increase her income by at least 10%, investing 90% of it back into her family.
Funds raised from Do It In A Dress have changed thousands of lives, with One Girl supporting 501 girls with scholarships.
One Girl is calling on all Australians to stand up for every girl’s right to an education — join the movement and sign up today!
WE HAVE A PROBLEM ON OUR HANDS…
• Over 130 million girls around the world are denied an education simply because they were born a girl.
• Sierra Leone and Uganda are two of the most challenging places in the world to be born a girl: almost 50% of female youth in Sierra Leone are illiterate, up to 40% of girls in Sierra Leone and Uganda are forced into child marriage and 3 in 5 girls in Sierra Leone don’t attend school.
• Worldwide, 14 million girls under the age of 18 will be forced into marriage this year. That’s 38,000 today or 13 girls in the last 30 seconds.
• In sub-saharan Africa only 1 in 5 girls will make it to high school.
• A girl born in Sierra Leone is more likely to be sexually assaulted than she is to attend high school.
BUT WE HAVE THE POWER TO CHANGE IT!
• For every year a girl stays in school, her income will increase by 10-25%
• An educated woman’s children are 50% more likely to live past the age of five.
• An educated girl will marry when she’s ready and have a smaller, healthier family.
• For every dollar she earns, she will invest 90% of it back into her family.
For more more information or to request an interview, contact One Girl Communications Director, Méabh Friel on 03 9913 4818 or at media@onegirl.org.au
About One Girl:
One Girl is an Australian not-for-profit organisation dedicated to supporting girls without access to education in two of the worst places in the world to be born a girl: Uganda and Sierra Leone. One Girl raises funds and awareness through national campaigns like Do It In A Dress to provide thousands of girls and young women with access to education.
Since 2009, One Girl has worked with well-established local organisations to reach more than 32,000 women and girls with access to high-quality education programs.
About Do It In A Dress
Do It In A Dress is an annual fundraising campaign organised by Australian not-for-profit, One Girl.
Do It In A Dress is about putting on a school dress, having some fun, and standing up for every girl’s right to an education. Through this campaign, participants raise money to support One Girl’s education programs in Sierra Leone and Uganda. To date, Do It In A Dress has successfully raised over $2.8 million dollars, which has helped changed the lives of girls across Sierra Leone and Uganda.
