To Educate a Girl

Streaming video - 2011

In 2000, 110 million children in the world were not in school—two thirds of them were girls. In 2010, filmmakers Frederick Rendina and Oren Rudavsky traveled to Nepal and Uganda, two countries emerging from conflict and struggling with poverty, to find the answer to one question: What does it take to educate a girl? Framed by the United Nations global initiative to provide equal access to education for girls by 2015, TO EDUCATE A GIRL takes a ground-up and visually stunning view of that effort through the eyes of girls out of school, starting school or fighting against the odds to stay in school...In Nepal, Manisha, a teenager who works in the fields while her three younger sisters go to school, is contrasted by three young listeners of a... hugely popular youth-oriented radio program. We learn how the program has helped them deal with issues of early marriage and poverty in order to stay in school...In Uganda, we meet Mercy, the six-year-old daughter of an impoverished single mother who is about to embark on her first day of school, and Sarah, .a teenage war orphan who is haunted by a tragic past but still managing to study...From volunteers going door to door in southern Nepal to a "back to school"march that brings an entire community together in northern Uganda, a stirring picture of grassroots efforts to help girls get a decent education is brought to light. To Educate a Girl is a compelling look at the lives of young women who are striving to achieve their dreams in the face of conflict, poverty and gender bias...To Educate a Girl first screened at the United Nations Girls' Education Initiative conference in Dakar, Senegal, in May 2010, and had its World Premiere at the Mill Valley Film Festival on October 11, 2010. Other festival screenings include: UNAFF (United Nations Association International Film Festival) on UN Day; Unspoken Human Rights Film Festival; Third Goal International Film Festival; and the Festival International du Film de Boulogne-Billancourt where it will be presented by the Cinema Verite Institute. It has also screened at many colleges and universities, including Columbia University's Teachers College on International Women's Day. more