Girls Health Ed, spearheaded by former beauty queen Sarah Hillware hosted ‘A Safari Affair’ Thursday evening. It was a night of encouragement and empowerment of girls, emceed by the host of DC 107.3’s Sarah, Ty and Mel, Sarah Fraser.
The evening took place at the Kenyan Embassy in DC, where guests were inspired by words of support from Kenyan Ambassador Robinson Njeru Githae about girls health education. Girls Health Ed — the organization — provides free health education workshops in Washington, DC, Baltimore, New York City and Los Angeles, and in Kenya.
“When you educate a man, you educate an individual. When you educate a woman, you educate a family, ” said Ambassador Githae.
Special guest speaker, Anna Blue, Deputy Director of Girl Up presented the room with powerful statistics about girls and the importance of educating them.
“Girls are powerful,” Blue began. “Girls have limitless potential and girls can change the world. A healthy, educated, empowered girl has the potential to turn a cycle of poverty into a cycle of prosperity, not just for herself, but for her family, and ultimately for her country.”
Girls Health Ed is a volunteer-based organization, which educates female youth aged 8-17 about their overall health, helping them to make empowered lifelong decisions. Hillware, recognizing the need for basic health education in the DC area, created this program to promote education in more areas than just basic daily health, but also including nutrition, body image, physical activity, personal care/hygiene and reproductive health.
Girls Health Ed is currently in the midst of their “Go Girl Go” program, which aims to raise $50,000 to expand health education initiatives to girls and young women. “Go Girl Go” donations will support a workshop in Kenya that is being held in partnership with the Mama Sarah Obama Foundation, a college scholarship for a high school senior in the Girls Health Ed program, as well as he expansion of health education programs to even more inner city schools.
“We’re in the middle of the largest generation of girls, ever,” emphasized Blue. ” This is the perfect time to invest in girls.”
