Educating girls is critical to the health of our global family.
It’s important to have some good facts up our sleeves, inside apron pockets or tucked into our high-tops—whether we are seasoned activists or just beginning our advocacy. Memorize facts that move you, then move others from concern to action by sharing them. Be sure to know your sources, because sometimes the truth is hard to believe.
- Worldwide, every day 24,000 children die due to malnutrition and mostly preventable diseases. One billion children, almost every other child in the world, live in poverty. (source: UNICEF)
- Fifteen million children worldwide have lost one or both parents to AIDS. By 2010 there will be 18 million orphans from HIV/AIDS (source: World Health Organization)
- Ninety percent of war casualties are civilians—almost half of these victims are children. (source: UNICEF)
- 20 million children have been forced to flee their homes because of conflict and human rights violations, more than 1 million of these children have been orphaned or separated from their families. (UNICEF)
- 132 million children in the developing world are orphans, meaning that they have lost one or both parents. (source: World Health Organization)
- Everyday in the U.S., more than $1 billion is spent on the military while 2,200 babies are born without health insurance and 2,600 babies are born into poverty. (source: Children’s Defense Fund)
- Fifty-eight percent of the proposed/allocated US 2009 discretionary budget goes to military spending—everything but Medicare, Social Security and a few other small-ticket items (source: U.S. Office of Management & Budget.) The U.S. military budget plus additional funds allocated for the “war on terror” is as big as the defense budgets of all other countries combined. (source: Institute for Policy Studies)
- Seventy-eight percent of Americans favor helping poor countries develop their economies as a way to fight terrorism. (source: Center for Global Development, 2004)
- World leaders have committed themselves to a set of eight targets called the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which if adequately funded, will halve extreme poverty worldwide by 2015. (source: U.N. Millennium Project)
- 77 million primary school-aged children, primarily girls, are not in school. (source: UNICEF)
- Child survival rates jump by 40% girls when are educated for five years. (source: ONE)
- More than 60% of Americans believe that contributing 0.7% of the GNP to meet the MDGs is the right thing to do. 0.7 refers to the repeated commitment of the world’s governments to commit 0.7% of rich-countries’ gross national product (GNP) to Official Development Assistance. (source: U.N. Millennium Project)
- Today, the world uses the equivalent of 1.3 planets to provide the resources we use. In other words, it takes the earth 1 year and 4 months to regenerate what we use in a year. (Global Footprint Network). On average, humans use around 20% more resources than the Earth can replenish. Americans use 500% of their share, Italians 200% of their share and Mozambicans use around 40% of their share. (source: Global Footprint Network)
- Women spend 83% of the money in the U.S. We can use this economic power to create enormous change. Inspire women to flex some economic strength on behalf of children! (source: Time Magazine)
- The Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria has approved $15 billion in aid and has helped save an estimated 2.5 million lives since 2002.
- 34 million African children went to school for the first time between 1999 and 2006, thanks in part to debt relief and assistance for education.
