Millions of girls around the globe face major obstacles to receiving an education, but a global campaign called 10X10 is working to break barriers. It has created a film called Girl Rising. WBFO's Eileen Buckley says Buffalo Seminary students will have an exclusive, private viewing of the film Sunday afternoon as part of Women's History Month.
Girl Rising is a powerful movie featuring girls from several countries including Afghanistan, India, Cambodia and Egypt.
The 14-year-old Pakistan teen seriously wounded by the Taliban for being outspoken for rights to educate girls opens the movie's trailer. http://youtu.be/BJsvklXhYaE
But this film unfolds the many young women who are facing adversity. They are fighting poverty, domestic slavery and gender violence.
"And these girls are examples of many girls -- the same thing are occurring to them in their fight for education in their daily lives," said Marla Beyer, a junior at Buffalo Seminary.
Beyer reviewed the movie trailer of Girl Rising and is very excited to see the full film Sunday, realizing the stark contrast from the lives of female students here in America.
"I'm really grateful for the opportunity to be able to learn more about this subject, because it is really the future of our world. Investing in these girls' education. And it is just so important because here at Sem I see so many girls with so much potential. Who knows what other girls in these other countries have the potential to do?", said Beyers.
The film was brought to the school's attention by Anne Wadsworth, a former trustee of Buffalo Seminary said Gwen Ito, the school's director of Marketing & Public Relations.
"We were fortunate because one of our faculty members, Doug Hopkins, who teaches history, was serving on the board of Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper with Anne Wadsworth. Through their relationship he came to learn about this film...and also her new organization -- Girls Education Collaborative," said Ito.
Ito says Wadsworth is a member The Girls Education Collaborative, which is building a school for girls known as the Kitenga Village Project.
"In there is an increasing need, with our neighbors around the world in different countries, for a place for girls to get education. I think it is a need that transcends cultural boundaries that it really is about every human being, girls and really boys, every young mind to be nurtured because that is our future," said Ito.
"For girls in other countries, just standing up and saying something is so big there because everything has been so oppressed for them," said Beyers.