The Girl Effect

Some of you might know that my masters project is looking at females both former and current tobacco smokers with the ultimate goal of understanding what social media channels can be used for this target audience in health promotion.

I often get asked -- Why females?

The rationale might have more international implications - but how can we take the following information and cater to our local efforts in prevention?

At the 2012 Annual Symposium of the UW-Madison Global Health Institute, Ruth Levine described the burgeoning youthful population that is projected to dominate the global south as an asset rather than a liability, provided that we make the right investments, and provided that we "Start with a Girl."

Ever heard of the Girl Effect? Watch 'the-big-picture' you can see what change looks like for individual girls, and join the movement. The Girl Effect, where there are stories about girls from a number of countries and lots of ideas about how to get involved.

If you would like to read more about this effort you can read the complete report, Start with a Girl: A New Agenda for Global Health by Miriam Temin and Ruth Levine. Or watch Levine's Keynote

Even in grade school I remember the constant question of 'how can we get the girls involved... in sports, in math, in science, in chess, in debate. In world health the focus is generally to start with the female, educate, provide community-based support, health care that meets her needs - does this rationale apply when our focus is locally?

Final words... This movement is about extending education and opportunities to girls alongside, not instead of, boys