Editor’s Note: Since this article was published reports of sexual abuse and mismanagement within the More Than Me organization have come to light. Global Citizen champions gender equality and girls’ education, fights against sexual violence in all forms, and supports survivors of such abuses.
It all started with a girl. At 11 years old, she was selling herself for clean drinking water when all she really wanted was to go to school. More Than Me was founded to meet her needs. We opened a school, the MTM Academy, for 150 girls and saw major progress. Then Ebola hit. The world didn’t act quickly enough, and we knew we had to fight to save her life. After spending six months on the front lines fighting Ebola and seeing three students lose families (and many other children lose their own lives), we realized that our girls would never be safe, never truly thrive, until Liberia does. The first step to rebuilding Liberia is education for all.
Liberia's education system is a mess.
65% of primary school age children are out of school, more than half (51%) of young people aged 15-24 are illiterate, and approximately 73% of all women and girls are illiterate.
Today is Human Rights Day and at MTM, we’re focused on education as a fundamental human right. Without education, that 11-year-old girl would have grown up without knowing what human rights she possesses. She would have become another statistic in the cycle of poverty and gender-based violence in Liberia and other developing countries.
Luckily, that girl is receiving an education. And she’s thriving. She wants to be a doctor when she grows up. She cares about her community and making it better. She knows how to advocate for herself. She knows this because More Than Me gave her the opportunity to go to school.
Our Vision
Our vision is every girl empowered: that our students will grow up knowing what their human rights are and will thus know how to advocate for themselves and their communities. At More Than Me, we feel lucky that we can provide a platform for this change to happen.
On December 10, 1948, the United Nations General Assembly in Paris passed a resolution called The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It set out, for the first time, the fundamental human rights that need to be universally protected.
On this historic day, More Than Me is advocating for the need to #DoMore for Liberia’s children. Our way of doing more is partnering with Liberia's Ministry of Education to rebuild existing government schools across the country using our holistic model, which provides excellent education and holistic wrap-around services to meet all of a child’s existing needs. Today, we’re asking you to #DoMore by investing the future of Liberia’s children.
This article was written in support of More Than Me.