Ginevra Bazzichelli

Landscapes of childhood ebb and flow, but one memory is engraved in my mind with the details of a Dürer. Years ago, at the age of seven, I was sitting on a park bench with my mother in Istanbul. I looked up and saw a large family of Syrian refugees from Aleppo. Unreconciled and hollowed, this family was disappearing into the folds of this unforgiving landscape like an ephemeral shadow. Darting eyes, unfocused courage masking curiosity, my stare landed on a young girl at precisely the fated moment. We locked eyes with what felt like some unknown masonic symbol, a deep and clandestine knowing… the inherent wisdom of a boulder. I will never forget the profound feelings that washed over me like a tsunami. I was looking at a reflection of myself and I know that she felt the same. We were mirror images: two human beings that just happened to be female, just happened to be the same age, just happened to be wearing our long hair in similar braids, just happened to both be clothed in blue dresses, and just happened to have such different roads ahead that we could hear the crashing of humanity and feel the insurmountable chasm arise between us even though we were only meters apart. This silent moment of profound connection helped me to realize that life is not unlike a Rorschach test, and equity is but simply… perception. For a child to comprehend that rights of childhood are not equally given was cataclysmic. The moment escaped, galloping past with the tug on my arm. But that encounter unleashed a promise: I would find a way to help her along with the other 117 million people who are forcibly displaced or stateless this year alone.

This event led me on my journey to empower underserved children and educators by harnessing the power of technology. Along with two friends, I founded a 501c3 nonprofit called Girls Growing Education.

Today, with intransigent feet firmly planted on the ground my hope runs vertical. Challenges envelop and imprint themselves on me like manufactured snowflakes captured on celluloid. But I’m steadfast and optimistic in my belief that education is a fundamental human right and that I can help. Inspired by the power of a singular promise, I wish to equalize knowledge production through a simple EdTech solution that delivers top-line content to those experiencing learning poverty and learning deprivation. It is intended for those who lack access to online education by bridging the digital divide via no internet required at scale. This device allows for accelerated and asynchronous learning for those students who desire more challenge. It also allows for teachers to be trained with content in different subjects and lesson plans for any grade k-12. It can address inadequate infrastructure, overcrowded and under-resourced classrooms, lack of agency, support inclusion with excluded populations in schools for those who need extra support, and/or be the immediate curriculum of excellence. These proven, high-level modules of learning combined with this EdTech device will empower and impact with extensive, far-ranging implications.

Last summer, we began with a pilot in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia with an educational summer camp for approximately 47 students, launching the EdTech device. Since then, we have introduced 11 Learning Centers in Addis with over 1,000 students attending. This past summer we returned to Addis to expand our Learning Centers and launched an Education Summit to formally present our ideas to stakeholders including UNICEF, The World Bank, IMF, USAID, and global NGOs, such as Imagine 1 Day. We are looking forward to collaborating with other organizations involved in education and continuing the opening and facilitation of learning labs, as well as expansion to other areas such as South Asia, adapting to the needs of each country and region we operate in.

I wish to be the catalyst of positive change and I’m keeping under-served children who lack access to a quality education in my direct line of vision. But stateless children housed in refugee camps stand steadfast in my periphery. I made this promise to a young Syrian girl years ago. It’s more than investing in young minds and helping them to reach their full potential: it’s about helping humanity find the road map to being human again.

Central to education is the critical issue of gender and I revisited I Am Malala after reading about Yogita Limaye’s (BBC) coverage from Kabul six days ago.

Malala, the iconoclast, was raised to be fierce and intelligent, knowing her true worth and the power of not just her voice, but every girl’s voice. As the Taliban continues to violate women through denying education, now even the most basic of freedoms is banned: a woman must not be heard outside of her home. The voice of a human being has now been co-opted and weaponized… muted, inconsequential, and disposable.

Like the female mind, the Taliban’s morality police believe that a voice can be owned and regulated in the interest of ‘virtue and prevention of vice.’

“If we can’t speak, why even live? We’re like dead bodies moving around,” Shabana says. “Every moment you feel like you’re in a prison. Even breathing has become difficult here,” said Nausheen, an activist. “The Taliban dragged me into a vehicle saying ‘Why are you acting against us? This is an Islamic system.’ They took me to a dark, frightening place and held me there, using terrible language against me. They also beat me,” she says, breaking down into tears.
“When we were released from detention, we were not the same people as before and that’s why we stopped protesting,” she adds. “I don’t want to be humiliated anymore because I’m a woman. It is better to die than to live like this.”

Now Afghan women are showing their dissent by posting videos of themselves online, their faces covered, singing songs about freedom. “Let’s become one voice, let’s walk together holding hands and become free of this cruelty” are the lines of one such song.

Yogita Limaye
BBC News

Malala understood this and more. In her self-titled book, education is the symbolic measure of all things possible and Malala’s magic pencil outlined the horizon line that intersected with her dreams. Fiercely passionate about education despite the unforgiving societal norms of gender-based violence, her family championed education as a fundamental human and moral right. These deep principles informed her magic pencil; it became a conduit to a greater good for everyone in her community. Malala imagined who she could become, as well as how she could bring change to others with this magic pencil. Consequently, as she matured, she came to the realization that this magic pencil was in fact real, it was her pencil, her writing, and her very actions that could unleash impact and change. “Until then, I had believed a magic pencil could change the world. Now I knew that I would have to do something. I didn’t know what that was. But I asked God for the strength and courage to make the world a better place.” She was empowered with the knowledge necessary to determine her own path while understanding that everyone could have Sanju’s magic pencil. “One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world.” All you need is a determined holder and an understanding that power comes from within.

To the human beings of Afghanistan who just happen to be female, we hear your voices loud and clear. We wish to help you access your fundamental human right to be educated and will support with our devices. That is our promise, that is our word, that is our voice.

Collectively our voices are stronger.
Please keep singing in protest.
We will not stop shouting.

At Girls Growing Education, we believe that education is a fundamental human right and it is a primary principle that drives what we do. The United Nations first articulated the right to education in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 28 stipulates that everyone has the right to education which shall be directed to the full development of the human being and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Furthermore, we believe we have a right to be included in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, specifically Sustainable Goal 4, which builds upon the core educational principles enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Therefore, we stand in solidarity with the Youth Declaration on Transforming Education, presented during the UN Educational Summit in 2022, a key document which arose from the demands of young people around the world advocating to participate in the transformation of education as collaborators rather than passive beneficiaries.

We need to democratize knowledge production. And this is what we are about: a simple EdTech solution that delivers top line content to both students and educators. It is a real solution for those who lack access to online education by bridging the digital divide at scale via no internet required.

At GGE, equitable access to education is delivered with a clarity of understanding and intention. It is not permissible to deny children around the world their right to a developed mind and this is as basic to defining their humanity as Article 1: that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.