Stand Up for Girls

Let us stand together to champion the right of all girls to be Fierce, Fearless and Free.

523 million girls and women worldwide cannot read or write.

LitWorld's Stand Up for Girls campaign advocates for every girl's right to a quality education. By learning to read and write, all girls in the world can protect themselves against poverty, poor health outcomes and lifelong struggle. Literacy is a skill that once learned, is hers forever.

Stand with us on 10.11.13.

Stand Up for Girls began in 2011 as a worldwide rally in recognition of the then unofficial International Day of the Girl. This day reached thousands of girls with organized rallies across the globe, and as a result of the outpouring of support from organizations such as LitWorld, the United Nations officially sanctioned October 11 as the annual International Day of the Girl.

In 2012 LitWorld led a full scale Stand Up for Girls worldwide campaign. We rallied our network of literacy champions around the world to advocate for every girl’s right to a quality education. The campaign culminated on October 11, 2012 with Stand Up for Girls events and online rallies sparked by our corps of champions, working together so that girls everywhere can be Fierce, Fearless and Free.

Stand Up for Girls shines a spotlight on the adversity that girls around the world face as they seek to fulfill their ideal learning lives. All people can support this message together: Stand Up for the human rights of girls everywhere by campaigning for their right to a quality education.

There is nothing more revealing of a society with burdens and wounds than girls who are prevented from attending school or advancing to higher education. Our entire civilization is at stake when girls’ lives are fragile because they are prevented from accessing the right to read and write. All girls must be able to vote with their names, read their medicine bottles, farm their land, ride a subway and go to college. Stand Up for Girls speaks to these issues and gives us all a chance, young and old, to show our daughters and the sisters of our hearts that we have not forgotten, that we want the world to be safe, fair and full of hope for all of them.