Around the world, girls face terrible injustice. UNICEF expects more than 14.2 million girls will be married off to adult men every year if things don’t change. Millions more will spend their days collecting water instead of attending school. Society tells them they have no value and gives them no voice.

We can change that! With your help, we can raise $100,000 to support Children International’s youth programs. These transformative programs teach girls – and boys! – to be leaders and stand up for each other. They help teens become agents of empowerment and improvement in their communities!

Support me this December as I climb Mount Aconcagua, the tallest peak in Argentina, to raise money to empower girls – and boys! – so they can ignite a brighter future!

Thank you!
Angel More, age 12
Youngest girl to climb Mt Kilimanjaro
Soon-to-be-youngest girl to climb Mt Aconcagua

Jennifer Mae Watters created this awesome video kicking off the first few weeks of my newly-named "One Step At A Time" campaign for Children International. She put it together using footage from the Rim to Rim hike I did at the Grand Canyon, and I cannot believe how great it looks. I was super nervous for my speaking parts. Thank you, Jennifer Mae!

To check out Major Diamond Productions, please follow the link here.

To read the full article by Children International on its original site, please click the link here. 
For more information about Children International, please click here.

Investing in Youth
Elected youth leaders in Kolkata, India, recently held their annual meetings to determine how best to use $20,000 in Youth Empowerment Funds. (Children International gives these funds to each of our 15 democratically elected Youth Councils.) They then develop ideas for community-improvement projects on which to spend them. Proposed projects undergo scrutiny by a panel of peers, a staff member and two former Youth Council members.

Years of experience have taught us that this unique aspect of CI’s youth program is a wise investment. Truly empowering young people means you trust them to set worthy goals and then give them the responsibility and the power of decision-making to achieve those ends – with just the right amount of supervision and guidance. And teens are uniquely qualified to know which problems their communities face and how to go about making a significant difference toward resolving them.

The winning projects in Kolkata this year include first-aid training for youth and volunteers, classes in the visual arts (with the goal of launching microenterprise projects after the training), as well as health and literacy awareness programs throughout our communities.

Fighting for Health
Youth in Quezon City, Philippines, have been busy. Many recently received training in our “Kick TB” program. As co-facilitators, they join existing staff and volunteer parents who’ve already been working with us to fight tuberculosis – a serious problem in congested urban areas. The aim is to reduce TB infections through health education to teach others how to detect, treat and avoid spreading the easily transmitted illness.

Opportunity and Experience
In Barranquilla, Colombia, the mayor chose four sponsored teens to serve on the first Council of Children and Adolescents. The council will address some of the big issues facing youth, such as avoiding teen pregnancy, reducing violence and avoiding drugs and alcohol.

The four young representatives joined 21 other members from different organizations throughout the city. During the event, sponsored 16-year-old Leydis took to the stage at the city’s largest soccer stadium and read the council’s proclamations with great maturity.

“It is a privilege to be a part of the council,” she said afterward, “because not all young people get the opportunity to live such new experiences.”

To read the article on its original site, please click the link here.
For more information about Children International, please click here.

On December 19, 2011, the United Nations General Assembly declared October 11 as the International Day of the Girl Child, a day to recognize girls’ rights and the unique challenges girls face around the world. Recently, at a special event for the HeForShe campaign, UN Women Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson called on men and boys around the world to join the movement for gender equality. Children International, a child-focused humanitarian organization, integrates gender equality and female empowerment throughout their programming to challenge discriminatory gender practices and restrictions.

One example of this can be seen in Children International’s Sports for Development program, an organized sports program that teaches the rules of life through positive skill building. The program is open to both young men and women and teaches participants skills like teamwork, goal setting, responsibility and conflict resolution.

This program often presents children and youth with their first alternative point of view of cultural stereotypes about women. For example, it is still rare for Colombian girls to play the same sports as boys, and it’s even rarer for them to play together. One Colombian youth, Edilma, didn’t let that stop her from joining the sports program.

Edilma said, "My friends told me soccer’s a sport for boys… that I should look for a sport for girls. But I feel happy playing soccer." By joining the program, Edilma was able to challenge gender stereotypes in her community. And because young men and women play together in Children International’s Sports for Development program, they learn to work together and respect one another. Many young men in the program have changed their views of women and girls as a result of having participated.

Leiber, 13, a Sports for Development participant from Colombia, said, "I learned to respect women’s decisions, and that they have just as much right as I do to participate."