"Subs by Joeshmoe." "Translated parts from Ganool Sub." "This is a simple story." "And it did not begin here." "This thing of beauty." "A joy, forever... rising." "This warm glow in darkness... like a harvest moon." "A Khmer proverb whispers..." ""Celebrate When the moon is bright."" "But for years, she was a child of the dark." "A place where smoke blackened sun and moon." "And eyes seldom looked up... from a world of things tossed aside." "An orphan." "Discarded." "Learning lessons no school would teach." "Hunting through rot, for a glimpse of light." "Metal containers." "Silver spoons." "Listening for the sound a palm makes when it finds a plastic bottle." "Careful not to step on used syringes, rusty nails or broken glass." "In daydreams she pictured freshly sharpened pencils." "Rows of desks." "The chant of the alphabet." "Wandering visions to pass long empty days... in a place where a girl... is simply one more thing the world has thrown away." "And when they found her... when this girls dreams came true." "She had not dreamt of gold." "She had not wished for beauty." "Hers was a simple dream." "The bright white shirt of a school uniform." "The crisp pleats of a skirt." "Shelves full of books." "A dream of school." "And how she dances behind a contented smile." "Because she knows this is no longer a simple story." "Now this is her story to write." "She is the author." "And this is not the end." "It is just the beginning." ""GIRL RISING"" "This is Wadley." "She's eight years old." "She plays herself from a story of her own life... that you're about to see." "Just like Sokha did." "And just like the other girls you will meet." "Senna." "Azmera." "Suma." "Mariama." "And Ruksana." "Two others who we'll call Yasmin and Amina... could not appear in their stories... out of concern for their safety." "Each of these girls was paired with a writer from her own country... to help tell her story." "These are true stories... if sometimes re-imagined to capture to capture the things these girls... and these writers, want you to see." "And their stories are important." "Because these girls hold our future in their hands." "If they, and the millions of girls like them... succeed in getting the kind of education they need... incredible things will happen." "For them, for their families... for their communities... for their countries, for all of us." "Here's the hard truth... in spite of the fact that educating a girl... is one of the highest return investments... available in the developing world... millions of girls just aren't making it." "Right now, there are 66 million girls out of school." "And many more who struggle every day... to simply remain where they belong." "In a classroom." "The morning of January 12, 2010 was bright and beautiful... in a way that Wadley could not remember... any other morning ever having been before." "It was the dry season, when wildflowers bloomed... and flowers that gleamed on their own without rain... fascinated some little girls." "It made impossible things seem possible." "Unachievable things appear doable." "And flowers... the hibiscus, azaleas, bougainvillea... they all looked even brighter when Wadley was happy." "Stop dreaming, Wadley." "You'll be late for school." "That morning, Wadley was working to memorize..." "Toussaint Louverture's final speech... as he was removed from Haiti by the French... after he tried to win independence for the country." "Wadley liked to imagine herself defiant, like brave Toussaint Louverture." "But she also wished she'd been given... some words by women to recite." "Brave and strong women." "Like her mother." "Wadley, one bag is enough!" "Every day, Wadley brought two snacks... from her mothers tray." "One for herself and one for another child." "That day she chose a new friend, Shelda." "A girl whose father had been killed the week before." "He was a taxi driver and someone had gotten into his car... with a gun and asked him to get out." "He had refused and the person had shot him." "Soon the moment came for Wadley and her classmates... to recite their quotes from the history lesson." "Alexandra!" "Wadley watched as some of her friends recited... or failed to recite." "Their stammers, stutters and hesitation... seemed to her like a long poem." "A love poem to history." "Wadley!" ""Overthrowing me..."" ""you have done nothing more..."" ""than cut down the trunk of the tree..."" ""of black liberty in St. Dorningue."" ""It will spring back from the roots..."" ""Because they are a multitude, numerous and deep."" "That afternoon, all Wadley could think was... it was the dry season, when wildflowers bloomed." "And these words seemed a perfect beginning for her composition." "And a fitting bookend to her day." "For they seemed to emerge, somehow out of the dream... that she had been having that morning." "Wadley could not remember how she and her mother... got to the open field near the university." "It was still the dry season... but wildflowers no longer bloomed." "In the tent camp, she often heard the most dazed of the adults say..." ""ashes to ashes, dust to dust."" "This they said when they were finally resigned to the fact... that their missing loved ones would never be coming back." "Life tried to return to normal." "Except now, her mother roamed the city during the day... looking for friends and family from whom to seek help." "And instead of school, Wadley went to the water fountain with a bucket." "Every day now as she passed through the camp... and the ruins of her neighborhood... she thought about school." "Sometimes as she walked by the rubble of the school itself... she thought she heard the voices of her friends reciting the lessons... that she now missed so much." "CECILE FATIMA COLLEGE" "Mom!" "What happened, Wadley '?" "The school!" "The school is open!" "I know." "Please go get the water, Wadley." "The school is open." "Why can not I go to school?" "Because we have no money." "Money was still not completely clear to Wadley." "She knew there was never enough of it." "That some people had more of it than others... and that it determined, in many cases... how people looked at you... and talked to you, and treated you." "It was the reason some people ate three meals every day... while others ate every couple of days." "It was why, she was learning now, that some kids went to school, and others did not." "Wadley, bye bye." "Bye bye, Mommy." "The next morning, Wadley decided that she would go to school... and sit on the bench in front of Madame Roy... along with the others." "Not matter that there was no money." "That's what she would do." "Good morning, madame!" "Thank you, madame." "Do you go to school here '?" "For a moment, Wadley wondered how Madame Roy could not recognize her." "But, remembered Wadley, the earthquake had twisted a lot of peoples minds." "Many people did not even recognize themselves anymore." "Yes, Madame, I was your student here." "I know that, Wadley... but actually, this is a new school." "Did your mother pay the money?" "No, there is no money." "Well, I'm sorry..." "But you have to go, Wadley." "Come back when she can pay." "Wadley decided that even though money could do many things... it was also a curse." "Because only a cursed thing could keep her out of school." "But she was not cursed." "Hadn't she been hearing from her mother and the others in the tent camp... that those who had survived the earthquake were blessed?" "Surely it meant that she was supposed to do something special." ""Ashes to ashes, dust to dust."" "She thought to herself." "The next morning, Wadley started to the tent school again." "She wasn't sure what she was going to do." "But she was determined to go, and stay." "You have, they have..." "Has your mother paid yet, Wadley?" "Has your mother paid the money?" "No!" "Will you leave, Wadley?" "No!" "You need to go home, Wadley." "No!" "This is the last time I'll tell you." "If you send me away," "I will come back every day... until I can stay." "What's this!" "?" "Even if you send me away, I will come back every day... until you stop me." "And the flowers, hibiscus, azaleas, bougainvillea... they all looked even brighter when Wadley was happy." "They even seemed to thrive for it." "Girls who go to school see immediate benefits beyond the things they are learning." "Being a student enhances their status in the community." "It improves their health ." "It makes them safer." "But in the developing world, getting an education... is not what people expect girls to do." "Girls are expected to work." "Expected to fetch water." "To care for younger children." "To get jobs." "Or worse." "80% OF ALL HUMAN TRAFFICKING VICTIMS ARE FEMALE" "It happens to girls like Suma." "Suma's parents didn't send her to school." "They sent her to work." "It's called "kamlari"." "♪Selfish were my mother and father♪" "♪Oh, friends and colleagues, I was born with bad luck.♪" "I wrote songs to remind myself that my memories are real." "And often, because there is so much sadness behind me... what comes out is sad." "Both of my parents were bonded as kamlar and kamlari in their childhood." "That's the way things have been around here." "That's the way they have been for the poor." "You have to bond yourself to a master otherwise, how will you live?" "This was the house of my first master." "My mother and father bonded me just so that I would have somewhere to live... and enough food to eat." "I was six years old." "Take this." "Do it quickly." "You have to go to the farm." "Fast." "Faggu Tharu was a landlord and a miller." "He made me work from 4:00 in the morning until late at night." "I had to clean the house and wash dishes... and go to the forest to fetch fire wood." "When I wasn't minding the goats, I had to mind the children." "The goats were nicer." "The daughters made fun of me because my clothes were torn." "They teased me." "They beat me." "I wanted my mother and father to take me back." "I wanted them to let me stay at home and go to school... like my brother." "But when I thought about how poor they were... and how much they too had suffered... it made me feel weak." "I couldn't ask." "This was the house of my second master." "Janak Mala wore a uniform to work." "He and the mistress of the house were very hard-hearted." ""Unlucky girl" they used to call me." ""Hey, unlucky girl, do this" they'd shout." "They made me sleep in the goat shed and wear rags... and eat scraps from their dirty plates." "I can't really talk about everything that happened to me here... but I will never forget." "This is where I began to write songs." "Only the songs got me through." "♪Selfish were my mother and father♪" "♪They gave birth to a daughter♪" "♪They gave birth to a daughter♪" "♪My brothers go to school to study♪" "♪while I, unfortunate, am a slave at a master's house♪" "♪It's a hard life, being beaten every day♪" "This was the house of my third master." "I was 11 years old when I arrived at Chitai Tharu's house." "I had been a kamlari for 5 years." "It wasn't as bad here." "I mean, it was bad because there was a lot of work... but there was a lodger in that house." "A school teacher called Bimal Sir." "He changed my life." "Bimal Sir convinced my master and mistress... to enroll me in a night class." "All of us would gather after finishing our days work... and we would learn to read and write." "I loved that night class so much." "It was run by social workers for girls just like me... kamlaris." "We would also talk to the teachers about... what it was like to be a kamlari." "And as we talked... we began to realize that bonded labor... was, and isn't it, slavery?" "!" "Good morning." "We are an organization..." "The teachers who ran the night class began to go from house to house." "There is a little girl working here." " I am here to take her." " Why?" "They wanted to liberate us." "One teacher, Sita-didi, told my master that he was breaking the law... by keeping me as a kamlari." "She talked about the law against bonded labor... and the law about children's rights and the law on labor rights... and the law against domestic violence and trafficking." "Come in." "She talked to him about justice and injustice." "And she demanded that he set me free." "My master said no." "Once made, a bond couldn't be broken." "Sita-didi didn't give up." "She ​​kept arguing." "She came back day after day." "And in the end, she led me home to my mother and father." "I am my own master now!" "I have no mistress." "I was the last bonded worker in my family." "After me, everyone will be free." "I feel as though I have power." "I feel like I can do anything." "And I have important things to do." "Inside this house is a girl, like I was." "Away from her parents." "Working morning to night." "Wanting so badly to be free." "We have come to this house, the house of her master... to say, "we know you have a kamlari working for you"." "You must set her free!" "I've seen where change comes from." "When it comes, it's like a song you can't hold back." "Suddenly, there's a breath moving through you, and... you're singing!" "And others pick up the tune and start singing too." "And a sweet melody goes out into the world... and touches the heart of one person." "Then another." "And another." "The practice of kamlari has been illegal in Nepal since 2000." "Camera person:" "Look into the lens." "And smile." "Now, with the help of girls like Suma... it's finally coming to an end." "For Suma it is not enough that she herself is free." "She's using her education to make sure... all girls are getting to school." "Because Suma knows that when parents have to choose... they usually choose to educate the boys." "So girls have less opportunity." "Less freedom." "And less education than the boys they grow up with." "33 MILLION FEWER GIRLS THAN BOYS ARE IN PRIMARY SCHOOL WORLDWIDE" "This means the girls suffer more hunger... more violence and more disease." "75% OF AIDS CASES IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA ARE WOMEN AND GIRLS." "It's a simple fact." "There is nobody more vulnerable than a girl." "IN ONE YEAR, 150 MILLION GIRLS ARE VICTIMS OF SEXUAL VIOLENCE." "In far too much of the world, girls still suffer unspeakable things." "Girls like Yasmin." "YASMIN CAIRO, EGYPT" "Sit here." "I'm Sergeant Saif." "This is officer Mansoor." "How old are you, Yasmin?" "Twelve." "Do you go to school?" "No." "We have no money to send a girl to school." "She works with me." "What do you do?" "We sell tea by the Sixth of October Bridge." "And your husband?" "Jail." "She's just a street kid." "No, I'm not a street kid!" "She was probably trying to shake down the customer." "Can you tell us why you're here?" "I'm a superhero." "A superhero?" "Stop this nonsense, Yasmin." "Tell them what happened." "I was with my friend Aya." "We were going to get juice." "From the juice man at the roundabout." "He has the best juice." "Aya had 80 piasters." "And I had two pounds." "It was hot and we didn't want to walk." "A man with a donkey cart said that he we would drive us... to the roundabout to get juice." "But then when we were nearing the roundabout... he turned off." "We didn't know where he was going." "He said don't worry, it was a fast way." "Aya got scared and ran away, but I was not scared." "You were not scared at all?" "No!" "Why not?" "Because I am strong." "I can fight." "He said we had to stop at his house for a moment." "He said he had juice at his house too." "When we got to his house, I saw that his wife was there too." "So I didn't think anything bad would happen." "He told her to bring us some drinks... and then leave us alone." "There was juice like he promised, but it wasn't good." "It tasted sour." "He was drinking some beer and I I don't like it when people drink beer." "So..." "I got up to leave." "But he stopped me, and said he would take me home." "We got back in the cart..." "But he didn't take me home." "He took me to a very dark place." "He told me he would not hurt me, but that he wanted to be with me." "He wanted..." "And I said..." "I told him I was not an ordinary girl." "That I was a superhero." "That I am powerful." "He did not believe me." "He drew his sword and told me it was time that I should fight for my honor." "And I told him that I did not want to kill him." "Cause a true hero does not kill." "He swung his sword at me, but I was too fast for him." "I drew my knife from beneath my clothing, let him feel the sharpness of my blade." "He was strong, but I was stronger." "He was fast, but I..." "I was faster." "I wanted to teach him a lesson." "To show him that girls are..." "He wouldn't leave." "But he just..." "This man... he was a bad man." "And he left me no choice." "We fought in that dark place for a long time." "He begged for me to... to spare him." "So I spared his life." "Your mother said... there was blood on your clothes... when you returned home." "Yes, it was a hard battle." "Could you show me your knife?" "I promise I will return it to you." "Why don't you go with Officer Mansoor..." "And let me speak to your mother." "Aren't you hungry?" "Go ahead, eat this delicious cookie." "It's good you didn't kill that cart driver." "I'd hate to put a smart girl like you in jail." "Well, I'll eat some too." "This is a very difficult case." "Very hard to prove." "Perhaps..." "We can get you some money." "The man has a cart and an apartment." "Some means." "My God." "What are you saying?" "I would rather die than touch any of his money." "She is my daughter." "You see how she was hurt." "I only want justice!" "Justice?" "Nowadays?" "I'm sorry." "Take it... everything." "Yasmin, can you show us where he lives?" "Well." "You know, I have a daughter." "She's a little bit younger than you." "But I'm afraid... she's not as strong or brave as you." "Perhaps you should meet her." "I would like her to learn to be a superhero too." "Well, come on." "50% of sexual assaults in the world... are on girls under 15." "50%" "The risk of sexual assault is one reason... parents keep girls at home." "Or, marry them off young." "The man who raped Yasmin is still free." "She has never been to school, cannot read or write..." "But is now engaged to be married." "And did we mention she's 13 years old?" "Early marriage is the future for millions of girls." "14 million girls under 18... will be married this year." "That's 38,000 girls married, today." "That's 13 girls in the last 30 seconds." "AZMERA, YILMANA DENSA, ETHIOPIA" "Look up." "There is a child in the sky." "There are angels." "There are beliefs to challenge, wishes to be fulfilled." "And here is a girl named Azmera." "Feet grounded in the Ethiopian soil." "In a young girls life... her eyes strain toward possibility." "Azmera, named for harvest." "Golden crops." "Bounty." "Loved by family." "Intensely curious." "Painfully shy." "Stubborn and kind." "Not yet age 14." "Trapped." "Look up." "There are myths among the clouds." "A myth about a boy... locked in a prison tower with his father... a famous maker of labyrinths." "The father made his son wings... from wax and feathers... and told him to fly out of the window to freedom." ""Don't fly too close to the sun" he warned." ""The wax will melt, and you will fall"." "But the boy rose up..." "flew too high." "Then fell to the ground." "The burning sun the only witness to his descent." "This is a myth." "This is a lesson about limits." "It reminds us that man was not meant to fly." "We can not reach the sun with wings crafted from feathers and wax... and desperation." "But look... here's Azmera." "She is in a life that is not a myth." "Living in a world with its own limits." "She is the only living daughter of Etenesh." ""My sister" she is called." "Etenesh was once the wife of a loving man... and mother of three... a son and two daughters." "Azmera, her youngest." "Her life was full." "Then her husband died." "Then her eldest daughter." "And Etenesh became a widow and a grieving mother." "Left with nothing to remind her of those she lost." "No photographs." "No drawings." "No letters." "What she has is Azmera." "And an older son, a young man... who loves his sister with the same devotion as their mother." "What she's left with is the determination... to give her surviving children what she can." "The elders warned Etenesh that Azmera too would die... unless she was married young." ""Give her hand" she was told." "Give her possibility." "A chance to live." "How much fear can one woman carry?" "How many children can she stand to bury?" "So when a man 20 years old and a stranger... came to ask for Azmera's hand..." "Etenesh opened the door and let him in." "She turned to the man and said, "here is my daughter."" "And she held Azmera and said, "here is a chance"." ""Here is possibility"." "Go!" "In Ethiopia this is how it was done... when Etenesh was a girl... and when her own mother was a child." "And when her grandmother was barely old enough... to do more than play and fetch water." "Here, it is said, that if a girl is married too young... she is in danger of being "split" by her husband" "Thirteen is considered to be a safe age." "Though the law says 18... girls as young as 7 have been married." "What does it mean "to split a girl"?" "Is it like tearing a photo down the middle... while each half witnesses the making of a ghost?" "What if a girls life could be more." "What if a mothers hopes could mean something." "What if a boy could look up into the sun... without falling?" "Look at this young man." "He is not myth." "He is not a stranger to failed dreams." "Misalu was the son to a dying father." "He left school at 7 years old... to do the work of an adult." "A farmer who wants nothing more than to be able to read." "He once tried to leap past the edge of his world... and fly away from it all." "But here is the heart of a man strong enough... to return to his mother and his sister." "He was in the fields, working... the day the man came for Azmera's hand." "He walked into the house... and saw strangers talking to Etenesh." "And he knew what was happening." "Each of our stories pivot on a single moment." "That short pause between what is... and what could be." "In a breath we can decide... between what we wish to be true... and what we can make happen." "Misalu said he would sell everything he owned... to keep his sister in school." "To give her the gift of a life with choices." "To give her chances he never had." "He told Etenesh "no"." "And Azmera stepped forward and told her mother..." ""I want a better life."" "Together, they refused this marriage." "I want to tell Azmera the most important parts of this story... about a boy trapped in a tower." "The same sun that brought this boy down... raises you up and gives you strength." "You can go as far and as high as you want." "As you are able to dream." "It is not ambition that destroys us." "It is not hope that will lead us astray." "You're a girl who has used her voice to say..." ""No"" "And every time you open a book... you continue your journey forward and upward." "We are from a country full of split girls." "We must reach out with firm hands... and hold them until the pieces fit again." "You are showing them how to live... by letting them hear you say..." ""I want a choice" and "this life is mine to make."" "This is how it happens." "One girl follows behind the other." "Until together, they move forward." "Towards something." "A future." "Here's an unsettling fact." "The number one cause of death for girls 15 to 19... it's not AIDS... it's not hunger... it's not war... it's child birth." "When girls marry young, education ends." "And the old cycles continue." "Cycles of poverty, cycles of violence... cycles of ignorance." "But a girl who gets an education starts a different kind of cycle." "Because she's going to stay healthier." "She's going to get married later." "She's going to have fewer and healthier children." "And most of all, she's going to have educated children." "And it's not just mothers." "Fathers too have to invest... so their daughters can dream." "It was always hottest before the rains came." "Sometimes even my daydreams seemed about to burst." "Blistering beneath the cities crashing heat." "And I remember how my mothers eyes would shine... when my father talked about moving back to the village one day." ""In the city," she used to say..." ""life rushes through the streets like a thousand rivers"." "But in the village, there's only one river." "And it's real." "With cool waters flowing besides mango trees... full of parrots." "I would love to live beside a cool river and eat free mangoes all day." "But I was so far from that river." "I was born here, in the city." "In our house on the sidewalk." "RUKSANA, KOLKATA, INDIA" "My mother had her parrots in the village." "In the city, I had my own friends." "Stop dreaming!" "You'll get us all killed one day!" "Ruksana!" "Come here." "Bring your notebook with you." "Drawing pictures!" "Drawing pictures in math class!" "Do you think this class is a joke!" "?" "Get out!" "?" ""No more trouble"." "That's what my father said last time." "And I promised, no more." "But somehow, trouble always found me." "Amma and Baba are home." "You're going to get blasted." "Baba is calling you." "Come on." "You know how hard I struggle to send you to school... so you can study and make something of yourself." "I don't send you to school to draw, do I?" "How many notebooks have you ruined with your doodles?" "I won't do it again." "I'll only draw in this book" "And I will study really hard." "I promise." "That was the happiest day of my life." "After that, I would have promised my father anything." "Some days there wasn't even enough money for food." "But today there was a notebook." "Colored pens." "No punishment." "Had there ever been a girl as lucky as me." "I remember thinking that one day..." "I would take my mother and my father... and my sisters in an airplane." "We would fly high above the city... and countryside and see everybody off." "After we landed, we wouldn't live in the street anymore." "We would live in a big house by the river in the village." "And everyone would have their own bed." "And my father would have many cows." "And my mother would have her parrots." "And I would have a monkey who I'd call "Masti"." "And I'd teach him to do all my math." "Hey, what are you doing?" "Drawing?" "Show us." "Don't be scared." "We're your friends." "We won't hurt you." "Just relax." "Why are you scared?" "Come on." "Come with us." "We'll play in the alley." "Daddy!" "Daddy cannot help you!" "Daddy!" "We will not do anything to you." "Hey!" "Stop!" "I want to go back to our village!" "No!" "I will not leave." "We came so far to educate our girls so they can lead better lives." "I will not give up now." "School!" "What's the point if street thugs attack them?" "We've come so far..." "Our girls are doing well in school and learning fast." "No." "We cannot go back." "After that, my sisters and I spent our nights at a shelter." "My father said it wasn't safe for us... to be on the streets after dark." "What are you doing?" "Who do you think you are?" "I run this night shelter while you watch tv?" "Go and do some work!" "The rest of you as well!" "How could so much beauty and so much meanness... be together in one world." "Where was that magic place inside the television?" "And inside my head." "And why was I stuck here instead." "Maybe I was being punished, after all." "After that long, terrible night... the monsoon rains came." "My favorite time of the year." "But this time, the rains came with more tears." "Hey go, go all of you!" "Come on!" "Tear down this slum!" "Everybody out!" "These are our homes!" "Please do not do this!" "A thousand rivers flowing with life." "And us, adrift." "No place in this soaking world for roots to take hold." "Everyone was crying." "Even my drawings." "You were right." "Let's go... back to the village." "No, you were right." "We've come this far with such difficulty." "Why should we let them drive us away?" "Even after all that, still... we were together." "A family." "I felt in my heart that everything would be okay." "My friends were still there." "And that's when I learned, never give up." "Because after the rain, there's always sunshine." "Take one." "Mark." "Ruksana." "Kolkata, India." " Let me just fix..." " the hair ribbon." "Ruksana is one of the lucky ones." "She's still in school." "Her parents can't afford a place to live... but they somehow find a way to get their daughters to school." "It's not easy." "Because even though it's a great investment... in a lot of the world, school isn't free." "Parents don't just have to pay for school." "They have to buy books and uniforms." "Sometimes they pay for exams and report cards." "For millions of families, it is simply too much." "A girl born on planet earth, today... has a 1 in 4 chance of being born into poverty." "And without a good school, that is where she'll stay." "But the right education can change all that." "Knowledge is power." "Just ask Senna." "SENNA THE RINCONADA, PERU" ""The Black Heralds" by the great poet Cesar Vallejo." ""There are blows in life, so powerful..."" ""I don't know!"" ""Blows as from God's hatred; as if before them..."" ""the backlash of everything suffered..."" ""were to dam up in the soul..."" ""I don't know."" "The first time I read that... it took my breath away." "The rhythm of it." "The force." "For me, it was unforgettable." "Poetry is how I turn ugliness into art." "Dark into light." "Fear into will." "I didn't learn this over the years... as I learned math or history." "I learned it all at once." "In a swift kick to my heart." "My name is Senna." "I am fourteen years old." "I live and study in La Rinconada." "La Rinconada is a gold mining town in Peru." "Perched on the side of a dead volcano 17,000 feet up... in the perpetual snow of the Andes." "They tell me my town is harsh." "Hazardous." "The highest human habitation in the world." "I don't know." "My father after a famous warrior, Xena." "He had seen her on tv." "But since he could neither read nor write... he didn't know that her name started win an "X"." "He said that like her..." "I would grow up to be a fearless defender of the poor." "A heroine prepared to go to war against ruthless men... if honor demanded it." "If a warrior's name... was my father's first gift to me... a brave heart was his second." "There is no hardship I cannot overcome." "My father knew something about brave hearts." "For he, like all the men of La Rinconada... was a miner." "He comes looking for hope... and finds nothing but misery." "For every golden ring... two thousand tons of rock must move." "For 35 years, my father drilled and dug... hunted tirelessly for a glimpse of glitter... winking in the granite." "But this mountain, she will trample the fiercest spirit... shatter the strongest back." "I still don't know what happened that day." "But I imagined." "The slam of ice." "Dead rock on rock." "The crash, the grind." "The sudden black." "Survived, but never returned to the mines." "And each day after that, he died a little bit more." "I was barely 5... but the memory of that day still haunts me... as if a shadow had fallen over my father." "As weeks went by and we drew desperate for money... my father became a cook... and my mother took his place on the mountain." "Every day, she and my sister joined the women... who scrambled their way up steep inclines to pound that rock." "Looking for gold the miners had missed." "Until night fell and cold stiffened their fingers." "Still my father insisted that I go to school... learn all the things he hadn't." ""There's no hope for me" he would say...." ""Ah, but there is for you"." ""Make a better person of yourself Senna... study"." "He made sure I saw what became of... many girls who did not go to school." "It was impossible not to." "Beside every gold buyers stall was a loud, raucous cantina." "Above every cantina was a busy brothel." "Miners squandered their gold as fast as they could find it." "Drunks staggered out of whore houses in the full light of day." "I had hear about the thousands of girls sold to men in those places." "Many of them infected with AIDS." "They seemed hard faced, wild eyed... with an infinite sadness about them." "Do not die." "I love you too much." "But the corpse... he kept on dying." "I went to the man who owned La Rinconada's public toilets... and begged him to give me work." "My job was to get to the stalls by dawn... wash out each cubicle, scrub out the wholes in the floor... and take 20 centavos per person." "I could add the earnings in my head." "As fast as the owner with his calculator." "My father beamed when he heard of it." ""You see" he crowed. "You have all the makings of an engineer!"" "In La Rinconada, the engineers are the bosses... the owners... and the ones with all the money." "In truth, I was having a hard time at school." "I was too worried to do anything but think about my father." "With every day his health sank to new lows." "I told myself I was a warrior... a defender of the weak." "I needed to stay strong!" "I sang to him... did all his sums." "One day my mother told us that... she would take my father down the mountain... to find a shaman... an herb... anything to slow his racing pulse... stop the bone rattling cough that was threatening to kill him." "I never saw my father again." "He collapsed and died in my mothers arms... shortly after they got out of the bus at the foot of the mountain." "When my mother told us this... it was as if I had been punched in the chest... as if the ground beneath us had fallen away." "For all of the years that my family had climbed that frozen rock... for all the gold that had been dug out... burnt clean, sent to glitter around the world... we had never owned a fleck of it." "We were poor." "Bone poor." "The poorest family in a mud-hole of poor people." "I cursed the mountain, cursed the mines... cursed the gold buried beneath my feet." "And then..." "I found this... this poem... about the black heralds of death." "About the powerful blows... fate can rain down on us..." ""I don't know."" "Those poems, those words outed something in me." "It was as if I had chanced upon a cache of buried treasure." "Each page opened a world." "Each line stopped my heart." "I memorized every word on every page." ""Then all the people of the earth surrounded him;"" ""the sad corpse gazed at them, touched;"" ""slowly he sat up;"" ""embraced the first man; began to walk..."." "In time, I saw that my father had been right all along." "I was a fighter...brave!" "And words made for mighty weapons." "I began writing poems." "I recited them for all my schoolmates to hear." "I even won a poetry contest." "I will be the engineer my father always wanted me to be." "I will be a poet." "I know now that the fortune my father sought so haplessly... was always buried in me." "It was just a matter of finding it." "Fewer than half the girls in the developing world... will ever reach secondary school." "By beating the odds, Senna is writing... a new chapter for girls in Peru." "Girls need good schools." "and they need to stay." "Because a girl with one extra year of education... can earn 20% more as an adult." "Because women operate the majority of farms and small businesses... in the developing world." "If India alone enrolled 1% more of it's girls in secondary school... her GDP would rise by billions." "Educated girls are a powerful force for change." "And this kind of change... it happens fast." "MARIAMA FREETOWN, SIERRA LEONE" "You're probably wondering... is that an ad for some charity?" "But, I actually have a normal life for a teenage girl." "I get up, I brush my teeth..." "I listen to Rihanna..." "I pick my outfits..." "I text." "Welcome to my world." "This is Freetown, Sierra Leone." "This is my mom, Salamatu." "And this was my dad." "My dad died when I was really little." "I like to think he still watches over me." "This is my dad's younger brother." "He had to marry my mom because she was his brothers widow." "She could have said no." "Or she could have become a praying wife." "It's sort of like being a wife, without the fun." "But then my uncle was really quite handsome." "So he became my step dad." "A few years later, Papa married Halla." "Now that was a love match from the start." "I guess you could call us the perfect family." "And it's true." "Isn't my school, cool?" "!" "I'm the first person in my family to go to school." "Everyone says I'm the lucky one." "This is our physics teacher, Mr. Ellin." "He told us about Isaac Newton... the biggest problem solver of all time." "Lots of people think science is boring." "But I don't." "Science is about asking questions and solving problems." "Just like Isaac Newton." "The most exciting change in my life was when I got my first real job." "I was so happy when I landed a spot... at Eagle Africa, 91.3." "These days, radio is the biggest thing in Sierra Leone." "Almost everyone listens to it." "On the radio show, I'm able to talk... to lots of girls all over the country and help them." "Every week we discuss a problem." "I don't mean a physics problem." "I mean real stuff." "One time a girl named Esatu called in." "She lived with her aunt who used her to run errands... instead of letting her go to school." "Even worse, her aunt's boyfriend had a really bad wandering hand problem." "Poor Esatu didn't know what to do, so she called the show." "I thought about what I would do." "I told her to tell her mom everything." "To not be afraid." "She wasn't doing anything wrong and that she should be going to school." "A few weeks later she called to say she is back at home... living with her mom and going to school." "She said I helped her solve her problem." "When I'm older, my plan is to have my own TV show... solving the greatest mysteries in the world." "Welcome to Dr. Mariama's miracle mystery show... in which I, Mariama, find solutions to... the planets most vexing problems." "Filmed here in Freetown in front of a live studio audience." "My big dream is to go to outer space." "To be the first African in space." "But the truth is I've never been on an airplane." "Actually, I've never even been to another country." "But I'm not afraid to dream big." "While I was busy dreaming, Papa was having some problems of his own." "He was being criticized by other people in my town... about me hosting a radio show and staying out at night... with my friends from the radio station." "One night when I was out he found out where I was... and stormed in." "I've never seen him so angry." "Papa refused to let me host the show." "I tried to talk my way out of it, which is something I can almost always do... but, he didn't want to listen." "That night I didn't sleep." "I told you my parents never went to school, right?" "Well, what I didn't tell you is what Halla told me." "That people in those days thought kids who went to school... lost respect for their parents." "I worried that maybe my father thought I had lost respect for him... by having a job at the radio station." "For the first time I had a problem I couldn't solve." "I thought, "What would Isaac Newton do?"" ""For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction."" "Newton's third law." "I needed to find a force equal to my father." "Someone my father would listen to." "Maybe Halla could be my force." "So I borrowed a radio and tuned it to Eagle 91.3." "I hated to hear the show going on without me." "Halla really listened." "She liked what she heard!" "She told Papa that he might have made a mistake." "He agreed to hear me out." "I told them all the good things the radio was doing." "Like the way I was able to help Esatu go back to her mother." "By being on the radio, I could help even more girls like her." "Halla said I should have another chance." "Finally Papa agreed to let me carry on with the show." "Only if I promised to come straight home afterward... and always let him or my moms know where I was." "I was back on the air!" "Now everything is cool again." "So you out there... watch this space... because one day you're gonna see Dr. Mariama's miracle mystery show." "Now there's nothing to stop me." "Nothing in the world." "Nothing in the universe." "Because I am the lucky one." "Because I am the lucky one." "Girls are not the problem." "They are problem solvers." "You want to slow the spread of AIDS?" "Educate a girl." "You want to grow the global economy?" "Educate a girl." "So what exactly changes... if 600 million girls in the developing world... get a good education?" "Everything!" "If my husband heard these words... he might kill me." "Someone like my father or my brother... or any one of thousands of my countrymen." "Killed because I want to learn." "Killed because I want to read." "I had to earn my own truth." "Because I am a girl." "Now that I am no longer a child, I cannot show you my face." "I must wear this shroud of blue." "A shell." "I am a girl masked and muted." "So what can you really know of me?" "AMINA AFGHANISTAN" "But I will speak." "I will not be silenced." "My story is like thousands of others... millions." "No one bothered to record the date of my birth." "As a girl, I was considered unworthy of a record." "I'm told my mother burst into tears when she learned my sex." "Set me aside in the dirt." "She already had one son, but wanted another." "Wanted the status of being the bearer of boys." "My mother never learned to read or write." "She's never opened a book, never written in a diary." "Can't even decipher the scribbles on a bag of rice." "From the age of three years old, I spent my days working." "My hands and face were chapped from carrying icy mountain water... to wash men's hands." "I woke before dawn, cleaned the house... washed the clothes, the dishes." "I carried my siblings on my back until they were old enough to walk." "I learned early to serve." "I learned early that this was the way things were always intended to be... for the women of my family." "A lifetime of servitude." "My happiest times were the few short years of my education." "I learned to read and write on an old blackboard... fixed to a crumbling stone wall." "Girls in other parts of my country where the Taliban were in tight control... weren't allowed to go to school at all." "Weren't allowed to step outside their homes so..." "I was always aware of my privilege." "I was 11 years old when my father arranged for me to be married." "My mind was worth little, but my body could settle a dispute." "Pay a debt." "My body is a resource which can be spent for men's pleasure or profit." "Who would care if I had to marry against my will... for 250,000 Afghanis?" "Roughly 5 thousand dollars." "For that price, my father offered me in marriage to a cousin." "My mother approved the match." "When the transaction was complete... they spent the money to buy a used car... for my brother." "I am an Afghan woman and I know from history... that it hasn't always been this way." "On my wedding day, I tried to think about... all the many strong Afghan women before me." "I've heard about Malalai, Rabia Balkhi, Saguna Ana... women who lived a hundred years ago." "They could read and write." "They spoke their own minds and were heroes for my country." "But now I am imprisoned in marriage." "Only allowed outside in this cover." "There's no opening for my mouth to talk." "My eyes are hidden beneath this embroidered cage." "The first night of my marriage, my new husband barely spoke." "And the seed he planted was not only the son he wanted... but the anger that has grown in me ever since." "I vowed that night I would find a way not only endure... but to prevail." "The midwife who delivered my son without complications... said I was one of the lucky ones." "More women die giving birth in Afghanistan... than any other place in the world." "When I birthed the baby, praise Allah a boy..." "I behaved dutifully." "As I suckled his innocence at my breast... cupped his tiny feet in my hands... all I felt was impatience." "Impatience because we are poor... because we are silenced... disenfranchised... beaten... cut... married as children... sold, raped." "When we seek freedom, we are burned." "When we speak the truth, we are stoned." "When we go to school, we are bombed... poisoned, shot." "Don't tell me it simply has always been so." "I don't believe in your resignation." "I refused ignorance long ago." "Don't tell me you are on my side." "Your silence has already spoken for you." "Do not tell me the blame lies in my religion... in my culture..." "In my traditions." "I have not forgotten my vow." "Change is coming." "I will read, I will learn, I will study..." "I will return to school." "I dare you to tell me it's a waste of time." "If you try to stop me, I will just try harder." "Put me in a pit." "I will climb out." "If you kill me, there will be other girls who rise up and take my place." "I will find a way to endure, to prevail." "The future of man lies in me." "And this is the future I see." "I am the beginning of a different story in Afghanistan." "And when my granddaughter explains how I withstood the odds against me... it will become legend!" "Ah yes, perhaps it will only be whispered at first... but just you watch." "It will grow into a roar... an inexhaustible voice that will usher in a brighter future." "Do you doubt me?" "Do you underestimate my will?" "Look into my eyes." "Do you see it now?" "I am change." "Amina, joins millions of girls in Afghanistan... who have returned to school their in spite of despite the dangers." "Thanks to a new generation of leaders... men and women... there are more girls in school in Afghanistan now... than at any time in it's history." "Because she refused to give up." "Just like Suma... and Wadley." "Like Senna... and Azmera." "Like girls everywhere." "There are more stories." "There are more facts and figures." "But the simplest is the most important." "Educating girls, works!"