Let Girls Learn

Working together to open the doors of education for girls around the world.

To educate a girl is to build a healthier family, a stronger community, and a brighter future. Unfortunately today, 62 million girls around the world are not in school. Half of them are adolescents. We know that countries with more girls in secondary school tend to have lower maternal mortality rates, lower infant mortality rates, lower rates of HIV/AIDS, and better child nutrition. But too often, a girl who could change her world for the better is locked out of that future by the circumstances of her birth or the customs of her community.

We know that a girl with an education can shape her own destiny, lift up her family, and transform her community. That is why President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama will be championing our efforts to help adolescent girls around the globe attend and complete school through the Let Girls Learn initiative, which will build upon the public engagement campaign the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) launched last summer. Let Girls Learn is a government-wide effort that will leverage the investments we have made and success we have achieved in global primary school, and expand them to help adolescent girls complete their education. A key part of Let Girls Learn will be to encourage and support community-led solutions to reduce barriers that prevent adolescent girls from completing their education.

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Every Girl Deserves An Education

A Government-Wide Approach To Empower Girls Around the World

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The Peace Corps

Peace Corps’ volunteers are already working side-by-side with families and community leaders. Through the grassroots development work that Peace Corps volunteers do each and every day, they are already positioned to work with communities to identify the barriers facing adolescent girls who want to attend, and stay in, school. Through the efforts of the First Lady—working with the Peace Corps—this new initiative will support community-generated and community-led girls’ education projects worldwide.

Training thousands of volunteers and tens of thousands of community leaders.
Collaborating with local leaders to identify community-based solutions
Recruiting, training, and placing hundreds of additional Peace Corps volunteers focused on advancing girls’ education and empowerment.

Learn more about how the Peace Corps will empower its volunteers to serve as catalysts of community-led change on behalf of adolescent girls’ education.

Visit the Peace Corps Site

USAID

Let Girls Learn builds on decades of work by USAID to improve the lives of girls and women around the world. Through Let Girls Learn, USAID will focus on increasing access to quality education, reducing barriers to success, and empowering adolescent girls.

Learn more about USAID’s comprehensive efforts to give girls the education opportunities they deserve.

Visit the USAID Site

Cathy Russell, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women's Issues talks with students at the Shalom Community School. Ambassador Russell is traveling with Second Lady Dr. Jill Biden and USAID Administrator Raj Shah on a three country trip to Africa. Official White House Photo by David Lienemann / Jul 02, 2014 / Lusaka, Zambia

U.S. Department of State

From achieving our foreign policy goals to mapping the future of global development, the Department of State recognizes that adolescent girls’ education is a powerful catalyst for good. As part of our work to advance shared peace, prosperity, and security, we’re building partnerships, implementing programs, and coordinating strategic efforts to address challenges facing adolescent girls globally.

Visit the State Department Site

Millennium Challenge Corporation

The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) recognizes that poverty reduction and economic growth are possible when countries invest in educating their people. MCC invests in education projects to ensure that students obtain the foundational knowledge and skills needed to get better jobs and increase livelihoods. As part of this effort, MCC also seeks to maximize girls’ and women’s educational opportunities and reduce missed potential by focusing on improving quality and access, developing capacities, training teachers and community leaders, and conducting policy reforms.

Visit the Millennium Challenge Site

The First Lady’s Trip to Japan and Cambodia

Tokyo, Japan; Kyoto, Japan; Siem Reap, Cambodia

March 18 - 22, 2015

During a visit focused on the Let Girls Learn initiative, the First Lady had the pleasure of standing with Mrs. Akie Abe, the wife of Japan’s Prime Minister, to announce a new partnership between Japan and the United States that will help girls around the world go to school. Mrs. Obama also had the privilege of meeting extraordinary girls and the community leaders, volunteers and teachers who are working so hard to help girls go to school and pursue their dreams. Along the way, Mrs. Obama experienced the rich culture and history of two fascinating countries.

While the focus of this work is international, Let Girls Learn isn’t just about improving girls’ education abroad. “It’s also about reminding our young people of the hunger they should be feeling for their own education here at home,” said Mrs. Obama. That’s why, once again, the First Lady is shared her visit with young people across the country through social media, a travel journal and video updates.

Photos & Videos

Travel Journal

You can follow The First Lady's work on this important initiative by keeping up with her travel journal.

Journal Entry 1:
"The First Lady's Travel Journal: A Journey That Began Decades Ago"

Before kicking off her trip to Japan and Cambodia, the First Lady highlights the Let Girls Learn initiative and invite young people in the U.S. to follow along.

Journal Entry 2:
"The First Lady's Travel Journal: Coming Together on Girls Education"

In Tokyo, Mrs. Obama announced a new partnership between Japan and the United States that will help girls around the world go to school.

Journal Entry 3:
"The First Lady's Travel Journal: Experiencing Kyoto's Beauty and History"

Mrs. Obama visits the beautiful and historic city of Kyoto which was the imperial capital of Japan for over 1,000 years.

Journal Entry 4:
"The First Lady’s Travel Journal: Educating and Empowering Girls in Cambodia"

At a high school in Cambodia, the First Lady heard inspiring stories from girls that amazing passionate about their education and determined to pursue their dreams.

Journal Entry 5:
"The First Lady’s Travel Journal: Touring Angkor Wat"

After visiting a Peace Corps training in Cambodia, Mrs. Obama traveled to Angkor Wat, a massive, ancient temple located just outside of Siem Reap.

Journal Entry 6:
"The First Lady’s Travel Journal: Make Your Own Mark on Our World"

The First Lady wraps up her trip and encourages young people to "keep on learning and dreaming and preparing yourself to make your own mark on our world."

Join the Movement

If we're going to transform girls' lives around the world, we need everyone—governments, organizations, community leaders, and individuals—to join us.

Get involved:

Raise awareness by sharing the facts and using the hashtag #LetGirlsLearn on social media
Connect classrooms in the US with classrooms overseas through Peace Corps
Follow Peace Corps on Twitter: @PeaceCorps
Follow USAID Education on Twitter: @USAIDEducation

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Private Sector Commitments

Learn more about independent actions from the private sector in support of the First Lady’s Community Empowerment Initiative For Girls’ Education:

Empowering the Next Generation of Girls Education Leaders & Building Capacity

Brookings Institution – Center for Universal Education

The Center for Universal Education (CUE) will conduct research and convene thought leaders to design a network of developing country girls’ education leaders. CUE will also provide the network with essential information, such as tools, best practices, training materials, and evidence on what is working and will conduct periodic virtual briefings to document and share learnings from the programs. This network will be a principal way in which the girls’ Collaborative for Harnessing Ambition and Resources for Girls’ Education (CHARGE) will advance its commitment to supporting developing country leaders.

Global Partnership for Education (GPE)

The Global Partnership for Education (GPE) will facilitate exchanges between national level civil society coalitions funded by GPE and the global network of developing country leaders to support the exploration of joint efforts to improve girls’ education. These exchanges may also support effective dissemination of information, tools and opportunities which can strengthen the work of national level girls’ education networks.

CARE

CARE will collaborate with the Peace Corps around the first pillar of the Initiative: to develop the continuum of training for volunteers and to provide support in the first phase of training. Under this commitment, CARE will use its training materials and resources to enhance Peace Corps volunteers’ work helping to support thousands of adolescent girls and their families in the communities in which they live and work.

Engaging and Mobilizing the U.S. Public

Girl Scouts of the U.S.A.

Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) will collaborate with the Office of the First Lady Michelle Obama and the Peace Corps, to deepen their support for girls’ access to education globally. GSUSA will make tools and resources available to girls who are pursuing two prestigious, national awards: the Gold Award and the Global Action Badge. Through these national programs, two million Girl Scouts will have the opportunity to be engaged in learning and leadership to create equity in girls' education around the world.

PBS Learning Media

PBS will inspire, educate, and connect students around the globe to leverage the power of digital media, through a series of curriculum, events, and local outreach. PBS, “America’s Largest Classroom” and its education destination PBS LearningMedia will collaborate to engage its 1.6 million educators and users to inform US students to the power and possibilities that an education brings to girls in the US and globally.

Girl Rising

Girl Rising will engage its grassroots network of nearly half a million followers through ongoing screenings and campaign activities, with the aim of increasing awareness about girls education around the world and encouraging engaged citizens to support community-based solutions including through the Peace Corps Let Girls Learn Fund.

Girl Up

The UN Foundation’s Girl Up campaign will engage its grassroots movement of almost a half a million young activists by featuring the initiative on social media channels and the Girl Up website, as well as highlighting it specifically in the online Club community – driving Club members to learn more about the program and girls education needs around the world. In addition, the Girl Up campaign will encourage its international Club network of teenage girls to fundraise for community empowerment projects, specifically highlighting projects with local UN participation.

National Peace Corps Association

The National Peace Corps Association will support Let Girls Learn by engaging its vast network of 215,000 Returned Peace Corps Volunteers across the country and around the globe through social media and other digital platforms to raise awareness. The NPCA will share information about the Let Girls Learn Program on its website and social media properties and platforms and will utilize its 150 affiliate groups of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers and Peace Corps supporters to highlight the Peace Corps’ Let Girls Learn Fund and Peace Corps Partnership Program projects geared towards promoting girls' education and empowerment.

Logo and Usage

Use this web button to link to us on your website and highlight Let Girls Learn. You may copy the image or the HTML code directly below to place a banner on your website.

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GUIDELINES FOR USE

The Let Girls Learn name and logo may be used in connection with distribution of information about the Let Girls Learn initiative, as found on U.S. government Let Girls Learn websites. Any other uses are unauthorized.
The Let Girls Learn name and logo may not be used to endorse any commercial product or service, nor may the logo be used in advertising or in any manner that could give rise to the appearance of endorsement.
The Let Girls Learn name and logo may not be used in any matter that could give rise to the appearance that the U.S. Government owns, operates, or is affiliated with any nongovernmental entity or its programs, products or services.
The Let Girls Learn name and logo may not be used to solicit funds or other contributions of monetary value.

Working together to open the doors of education for girls around the world.

Working together to open the doors of education for girls around the world.

Every Girl Deserves An Education