Holly Gordon Speaks at CEDAW
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There’s no more story exciting
story or important story
than the one told
in that short video.
And that’s when you
educate girls,
you really can change the world.
As many of you know,
the research is clear -
an educated girl in the
developing world marries later,
she’ll have fewer children;
she’s more likely to stand
up to abuse and less
likely to contract HIV/AIDS.
When she grows up, she’s
more likely to get involved
in community leadership.
She’s more likely
to start a business,
and when she earns money, she
will invest 90% of her earnings
into taking care of her family.
And most important of all, an
educated girl becomes a mother
who will educate both her sons
and her daughters equally.
And that’s how cycles
of illiteracy
and poverty are broken.
Girls represent untapped
opportunity -
for prosperity and
for stability.
And yet around the
world, girls continue
to face marginalization
and discrimination.
As a journalist, this is
by far the most important
story I have ever reported.
And as a journalist,
I know the power
of story-telling to
change the world.
And that’s why I’m here to
tell all of you about 10x10,
a game-changing global
campaign designed
to bring the power... designed
to bring the story of the power
of girls’ education to the
farthest corners of the planet.
As Joy said, we’re a team
of award-winning journalists
who grew up within ABC News and
with 10x10 we see an opportunity
to use our core competency
as story-tellers --
combined with deep
strategic partnerships -
to ignite a global movement
for girls’ education.
This is a story that
everyone should know,
and I hope you will join us.
Here’s what we’re doing.
We’re making a film and we’re
launching an action campaign.
Now that may sound like
something you’ve heard before.
But we’re doing things
differently,
and I’ll get to that
in a moment.
But first let me tell you
a little about the film
because it’s exciting.
At the center of 10x10
is a feature-length film
that will tell the stories
of 10 extraordinary girls
from 10 countries in
the developing world.
We’re going to Egypt, to Haiti,
to Afghanistan and India,
and we’re meeting
hundreds of girls
to find just the right story.
Like Sokha, our Cambodian
girl, - who was orphaned
at ten years old
and barely survived
for four years picking
trinkets from a smouldering dump
in Pham Pen and sleeping
on the streets.
At 10 years old through a set
of miracles, Sokha was rescued
from the dump and given an
opportunity to go to school.
Two years later, she is
thriving, and I met Sokha.
She is extraordinary.
She is at the top of her class
and she is singularly focused
on becoming a teacher so that
she can pass the life-long gift
of literacy to the
next generation.
Now, note I called our a project
of film, not a documentary.
And this is where you
should pay attention.
When we found our girl like
Sokha, we’re introducing her
to an acclaimed female
writer from her own country -
like Loung Ung, whose own story
of escaping the Khmer Rouge
became a national best-seller.
Loung will use her own
personal experience
and her literary skills
to transform Sokha’s story
into an emotional and dramatic
screenplay for the film.
So that we have the
power of truth,
and the emotional
power of fiction.
We’ll do this 10 times.
We’re telling 10 short stories
of 10 girls from 10 countries
with the help of 10
globally acclaimed writers.
And I promise the results
will be spectacular.
Our director’s last film was
nominated for an Academy Award,
and we are incredibly excited
about the creative
potential for this one.
But you’ll have to wait until
Spring of 2013 to see the film,
and it’s not the 10x10 film that
I really want to focus on today.
It’s the 10x10 campaign.
Because as journalists we
knew that during the course
of making the film we
would compress hundreds
of amazing stories that
wouldn’t make the final cut.
And we knew that social media
- Twitter, Facebook, YouTube
and beyond provide
powerful platforms
to share important stories
with global audiences.
So why not turn the
traditional process on its head?
Instead of making
the film in secret
and launching a campaign right
before the film comes out,
why not get going on the
campaign to build momentum
and get people excited
NOW, and ask people to ACT
on NOW behalf of girls.
And so that’s what we’re doing.
When we go Egypt, to
Afghanistan, to Nepal,
to Haiti for the film
we’re capturing all sorts
of photography and video
and turning those assets
into stories to fuel
a movement for girls.
Think of 10x10 as a giant
advertising campaign
for the power of the girl.
But how can we reach
the broadest audience
and make sure our
stories have an impact -
that when people
see our stories,
they have an opportunity
to do something to help?
That’s where partnership
comes in.
Partnership is at the
core of 10x10’s strategy.
10x10 partners, both
corporate and non-profit,
have the infrastructure, clout
and networks to tell our stories
and share them more widely.
We’re creating innovative
partnerships
with non-profit organizations
who work to improve the lives
of girls everyday - like Room To
Read, Plan International, CARE,
the UN Foundation and
Partners in Health.
We’re making customized
videos especially for them,
to use globally and locally
for fundraising and advocacy,
to get more people involved
in a 10x10 movement
for girls’ education.
So for example, if your daughter
joins the UN Foundation’s Girl Up
Campaign -- she will receive
THIS flash drive with a story
that we produced about
a girl named Melka,
who after escaping a
child marriage herself,
is teaching other girls in
Ethiopia about their rights.
And your daughter will be
able to use that story -
AND THIS TOOL KIT - to engage
her friends, and her school,
and her community to raise
money for UN programs
that end practices
like child marriage.
Thousands of girls
ambassadors, using 10x10 stories
to scale a movement
for girls’ education.
And we’re partnering
with corporations -
because we believe
when you’re trying
to create transformational
social change,
forward-thinking
corporations can be your most
powerful allies.
We’re thrilled to have
the Intel Corporation
as our founding strategic
partner.
Intel is innovative in that
they’re supporting 10x10
across their business,
engaging their 87,000 employees
in the campaign, accessing their
significant marketing budget
to support 10x10 messsaging,
and preparing their key leaders
to talk about our shared vision
that educating girls means a
brighter future for all of us.
When a corporation like Intel,
and many of the corporations
in this room today,
emphasizes their commitment
to educating girls, minsters
in the developing world listen
and graphic change
becomes possible.
Intel, and I hope some of you,
will help to scale the
movement for girls’ education.
For example, if you happen to
be at the G-20 Summit in Cannes
in two weeks, you’ll
see a video we created
with Intel’s support -
I’m not going either -
you’ll see a video
that we created
with Intel’s support
asking global leaders
to prioritize girls’ education
and women’s economic empowerment
in their allocation
of resources.
Because Secretary of
State Clinton is right -
girls and women represent an
enormous untapped opportunity
for the world.
Stories driving change.
Stories driving a
movement for girls.
We’re working from the top
down - Can’t get much higher
than the G20 Summit - but
also from the bottom up.
Between now and next June we
will bring the 10x10 campaign
to 50 college campuses
in the United States,
in a two-year program
that will culminate
in the release of the film.
We’re asking campus
leaders to raise awareness
and raise money - not for 10x10
but for our core non-profit
partners - Care, Room to Read,
Plan International
- those partners
who are actually providing
services to girls on the ground
around the world every day.
Scaling a movement for girls.
And we are asking
celebrities, journalists
and global influencers to get
involved to lend their voice
and their talents to
the 10x10 campaign.
Like Queen Rania of Jordan, who
also likes clear podiums so...
Queen Rania is one of
our global champions,
and she’ll be sharing 10x10 and
the power of girls’ education
with her 1.7 million
Twitter fans
in the Middle East and beyond.
Queen Rania is helping to scale
a movement for girls’ education.
We want 1 Billion people in
the world to come in contact
with 10x10 stories, and we
want to convert 1 Million
of those people to
take a specific action,
like funding a scholarship, like
providing a bicycle for a girl
to get to school, or providing
books so that she can read.
And by the way, every
single one of our girls
in this film is teaching
her parents to read.
These girls are revolutionaries.
Want to know what a
revolutionary looks like?
She’s usually about this big.
She has a fire in her eyes,
and she loves to learn.
And we’re meeting them
all over the world.
1 Billion people.
1 Million actions.
Those are our measured goals,
and I hope we exceed them.
But having measurable
goals is another first
for a campaign of this kind.
We’re measuring who
sees our stories,
and what they do as a result.
We want to convert
AWARENESS into ACTION.
We’re just a few months in,
and we’ve already reached
over 2 million people
with our stories.
We’re just getting started.
When the film comes
out in theaters,
we want to have our partners
and advocates prepared.
That’s why I’m here
with you today.
I couldn’t, as I said,
imagine a better audience
to help in this project.
Together we can use that
moment of the film’s release
to galvanize all of our fellow
girl-champions around the world
to demand equality for girls
everywhere in the world.
So what can you do?
How can you support our efforts?
Here’s something really easy --
by the end of this luncheon
join us on Twitter and Facebook
and make a commitment
over the next 18 months
to share our posts and our
tweets with your network.
Each of you have a
card on your table
which gives you the opportunity
to raise your hand and join us.
If you are a corporate
leader, consider joining Intel
as a strategic partner
for 10x10.
Your employees and your business
skills and your senior leaders -
and that’s really important
- all have a role to play
in ensuring a brighter
future for girls.
If you are a non-profit
organization,
sign up to host a screening
when the film comes out.
You will be able to use that
screening to raise funds
and awareness for your
own organization -
again and again and again.
If you are a college
professor or a teacher,
bring 10x10 onto your campus.
Get students involved in
being agents of change
for the next generation.
And if you’re an individual -
and I shared this with someone
on my staff, and he said “Holly
- everyone’s an individual”.
-
Bring 10x10 to your book club
- we have a book club toolkit,
something for everyone -
bring 10x10 to your book club
or community group, volunteer
to help spread the word
in San Francisco, through
the media and beyond.
Host a fundraiser
to benefit 10x10,
or more importantly
host a fundraiser
to benefit a 10x10 partner.
Please fill out the cards and
leave them on your chairs.
And let us know how you
want to be involved.
Because together we
can seize this moment.
We can build momentum.
And we can use the power
of collective action
to demand transformational
generational change for girls.
Thank you.