National Geographic Partners with Bollywood Celebrities to Promote #StandWithAGirl

To uniquely mark International Women’s Day on March 8, the channel is highlighting education and empowerment for the Indian girl child.

[Photo Source: Screenshot via YouTube]

To uniquely mark International Women’s Day on March 8, National Geographic is highlighting education and empowerment for the Indian girl child. Bollywood celebrities Dia Mirza, Shabana Azmi, and Gul Panag have partnered to speak up for the girl child and her rights in Nat Geo’s short trailer.

Trending as #StandWithAGirl, the initiative aims to give the young girls of India a chance at a successful future. This includes reduced child marriage rates, poverty, gender-based violence, and inequality across the country. Nat Geo has paired with Milaap Social Ventures India Private Limited to assist in funding five NGOs committed to direct impact.

Milaap is a mission-driven and crowd-sourced funding community, dedicated to “empowering people to be the change they want to see.” Milaap, meaning “connecting people” in Hindu and Urdu, does just that—by affiliating with grass-roots level organizations, known as “Field Partners,” the company provides the financial assistance deserving projects need to reach their goals. In the case of Nat Geo’s initiative, preparing girls to be the world’s leaders of tomorrow would not only enable them to overcome their own marginalities and build sustainable futures, but also enable them to bolster their families and surrounding societies.

This year’s chosen NGOs are:

1. Educate Girls

About 3 million girls across India are not in school. Founded in 2007, Educate Girls focuses on enrollment, retention, and improved learning outcomes by working directly with governments, schools, parents, village leaders, and community volunteers to ensure access to quality education for girls.

By leveraging public, private, and community investments, Educate Girls has brought 100,000 girls back to school in the last 8 years, affecting 2.8 million beneficiaries. They aim to impact the education of 4 million children by 2018. With a management office in Mumbai and operations in seven districts of Rajasthan, Educate Girls has thus far reached 8,000 schools in over 4,500 villages.

2. Nanhi Kali

This project supports the education of over 110,000 underprivileged girls across 10 Indian states. According to this team, “education is the only weapon that will open the doors to provide [girls] with equal opportunity.” Nanhi Kali provides before and after-school tutoring support to strengthen learning levels. They also provide school bags, shoes, books, uniforms, lunch boxes, and other essentials that help girls go to school with dignity.

Furthermore, Nanhi Kali mobilizes and involves parents, teachers, and village elders to actively partake in the behavior change process—sensitizing them to the importance of girl child education and against various social evils like child marriage and gender discrimination. Rs. 3,000 supports a girl through a whole year of her primary education and Rs. 4,200 supports her through a year of secondary education.

3. Magic Bus

Founded in 1999, Magic Bus now operates in 22 Indian states, reaching over 300,000 children across the country. With trained mentors and role models who use interactive games to teach children about key issues surrounding education, gender, health, and equality, the program builds physical, social, and personal skills essential to shaping confident and responsible adults. Girls in the Magic Bus program have shown improved rates of school enrollment, including for higher education and regular attendance, thereby increasing their chances of building sustainable livelihoods.

4. I AM Foundation

This Foundation supports various reputed organizations, individuals, families, businesses, and agencies working to empower the most vulnerable children through building lifelong skills along self-esteem literacy, resiliency education, and social entrepreneurship. The I AM Foundation is especially committed to girl empowerment through its partnerships with Bal Asha Trust and Food for Life Vrindavan. The Trust helps girls with their nutritional, medical, educational, developmental, and recreational needs. Food for Life Vrindavan offers free education to underprivileged girls through direct schooling, free books and supplies, uniforms, basic medical care, and meals.

Overall, the Foundation aims to offset the preferential imbalance that families give to boys over the girl child. The team also trains village women in health and personal finance.

5. Mijwan Welfare Society

Where he was born in Eastern Uttar Pradesh, renowned poet Kaifi Azmi worked to empower the village of Mijwan. He believed that India could make true progress only when the girl child was placed at the center of development and given guaranteed equal rights to education, health, and employment. As a result, he founded the Mijwan Welfare Society, which is currently run by his daughter, actor, and activist Shabana Azmi, with her goddaughter Namrata Goyal.

The Society runs a variety of training centers and schools—like Kaifi Azmi High School for Girls, Kaifi Azmi Inter College for Girls, Kaifi Azmi Computer Centre, and Kaifi Azmi Sewing and Embroidery Centre—to give girls new routes to employment and sustainable skills. The Society wishes to break the traditions of child marriage and dowry via quality education for the girl child. A donation of Rs. 8,000 can fund one year of a girl’s education.

Donations to any of Nat Geo’s five shortlisted NGOs will be accepted until March 15 through Milaap’s payment gateway and are tax deductible. Milaap will directly transfer every penny to the NGO of your choice. Nat Geo will not be involved in any monetary transaction, as the network merely intends to generate awareness and action towards supporting the girl child.

As activist Malala Yousafzai has said, “One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world.” Also, in honor of Yousafzai’s story and International Women’s Day, on March 8, Nat Geo will premiere “He Named Me Malala”—the documentary of the girl who braved the Taliban’s bullets to further the cause of education and rights-based discourse for girls worldwide.

To read more about #StandWithAGirl or to learn how you can contribute, visit the official website.