International Day of the Girl on NBC's Today Show

More than 98 million of the world’s adolescent girls do not go to school.

On Thursday, former American first lady Michelle Obama announced a new program to help empower girls through education.

The program is called the Global Girls Alliance. It plans to support more than 1,500 local organizations that are already working to educate their community’s girls. The effort will include social fundraising.

Obama said Thursday on NBC’s Today Show, “When you educate a girl, you educate a family, a community, a country.”

She said her two daughters, Malia and Sasha, are “some of the reasons why this issue means so much” to her.

Her announcement came on International Day of the Girl. The United Nations has marked the Day of the Girl on October 11 since 2002.

The hashtag #DayoftheGirl became a top trending topic worldwide on Thursday. Michelle Obama and her program did, as well.

The UN chose this year’s theme to be “With Her: A Skilled GirlForce.” It explained that more than 600 million young girls will enter the workforce in the next 10 years. More than 90 percent of them live in developing countries where “low or no pay, abuse and exploitation are common.”

The UN says the 2018 Day of the Girl marks the start of a yearlong effort to provide girls more chances to gain the skills they need to find better jobs.

Words in This Story

adolescent -n. a young person who is developing into an adult​, usually from the ages 10 to 19

fund-raising -n. activity done to collect money for a political party, charity, school, etc.​

theme -n. the particular subject or idea on which something (like a campaign or movement) is based​

exploitation -n. to use (someone or something) in a way that helps you unfairly​