so a long time ago there is a girl who
loved to play soccer she wanted to do it
after school she wanted to do it at
recess she wanted to do it at home every
free time she got she wanted to spend it
playing soccer
however at school during recess she
wasn't allowed to do so because both of
the soccer fields were specially
reserved for boys so one day this girl
decided to stand in from the recess
light Lane ran faster than everyone else
took the soccer ball and told the boys
today it's the girls turn to play from
that day until she graduated from lower
school boys and girls had an equal
opportunity to play the sport they loved
soccer like this girl I also wanted to
make a change in my community which is
why I created a nonprofit organization
called anything intimate that I walked
into a room full of 42 girls and their
relatives it was loud as soon as I stood
in front of them that the room became
quiet hi my name is Andy a puma I am the
founder of the Sangha to Metta and I am
17 years old as soon as I said my age
everyone was shocked how was a 17 year
old supposed to take care of 42 other
younger girls seemed impossible however
after talking with the parents
explaining them what we were gonna be
doing and telling them we would that we
would be done at 12 they decided to
trust me said their goodbyes and love at
first the girls were shy they barely
talked to each other they barely
participated in the activities but but
soon they became leaders and
changemakers in their communities last
December I got the opportunity to start
working with 40 other Salvadoran girls
starting an empowerment journey for more
empowerment empowerment is a key factor
in the Sangha Samantha it is a source of
encouragement and motivation castles
urologist Jin n describes it empowerment
as I can do factor it
going from I cannot to I can let's
imagine two plants pant a and plant B
let's say plant a gets Sun fertilizer
and water
well plant B that's nothing clearly
what's going to happen is that plant a
will grow into a beautiful green plant
will plant B will wither its these will
fall and it'll die something like this
is happening in our community
boys are expected to grow into strong
hard-working intelligent men and women
are expected to stay at home and tend
release men a study conducted Cornell
University proved that while men tend to
overestimate their abilities women tend
to underestimate these all because of
gender standards and norms because of
this I decided to create a nonprofit
called the senator Mehta as a way to
tackle gender inequality my goal is to
work with girls from at-risk communities
and teach them that they are capable of
achieving the unimaginable at first I
wanted to change their life however I
never expected three of them to change
mine over the course of two generations
we've measured three things self-esteem
authentic happiness and grit greatest
perseverance and passion for long term
goals in our first generation after only
32 hours of intervention we saw thirteen
point two percent increase in
self-esteem in our second generation
after only twenty eight hours of
intervention we saw twelve point six
percent increase in authentic happiness
and a five point eight percent increase
in grit today girls that barely believe
them themselves have created projects to
give back to their communities and have
learned that they have the power to say
no these girls and the changes I've seen
in them inspired me to share with you
today
why empowering women in our country is
so important its first investing in
girls education can decrease early
pregnancies and increase the economy
second giving girls access to working
with role models can increase the amount
of girls that attend and graduate from
universities and third empowering girls
can decrease the opportunity and wage
gaps thus creating more equal and
inclusive work environments to show you
what I mean I'll introduce you to three
of the girls who changed my life forever
and who taught me why women empowerment
in our country is so important first
I'll introduce you to Mary it was the
second day of Lisa got to meet that and
Mary was a little down she was always
the one who was cheering everyone up but
today was different I pulled her aside
and asked her what was wrong and she
immediately looked at me with tears in
her eyes and said I'm worried I'm
worried because my 16 year old sister is
pregnant and had a baby a year ago I'm
worried because her boyfriend did not
finish high school is 18 years old does
not have a job and neither and neither
of them have the means to take care of
two babies as soon as she told me this I
thought about the thousand other
Salvadoran girls but like Mary's sister
do not have an opportunity to finish
their education and cannot support their
babies now I want you to imagine this
scenario let's say we have this school
the school has a hundred kitc kids in
each grade and each grade is divided
equally so 50 girls and 50 boys right so
the high school would look something
like this now let's say that out of
those 50 girls in each grade eight of
them are pregnant so in a total of 200
girls 32 of them are pregnant that's a
lot and sadly that's our situation in
our country according to the Ministry of
Health fifteen point five percent of the
girls eight ages 15 to 19 are pregnant
or have at least one baby however
there's a simple solution to this
problem and that is investing in girls
in their education
according to Malala foundation every
year a girl finishes primary education
early pregnancy rates decrease by 10%
and every year they finish secondary
education that rate decreases by 59% and
it's that simple as investing in girls
in their education this is the world's
best investment and here is why
economies grow and early pregnancies
decrease according to a study conducted
by the World Bank every year a woman
finishes secondary education correlate
to the 25% wage increase later in life
what that leads to fewer and better
educated children and the biggest
conclusion of it all is that investing
in girls education is to economic and
social development changing is gril a
girl's life is asked it is that simple
as investing in her education like Mary
Sarah also taught me why women
empowerment is so important Sarah lived
two and a half kilometres away from her
home that is a 40 minute walk there and
back
however the walk to her school was
dangerous which is why Sarah walked
every day with her older friend Emma one
day Emma got distracted and they were
leaving school about 3:30 but they have
to stop by the grocery store when they
were done shopping it was like 4:30 so
it was getting kind of dark they were
walking out of the grocery store and a
white pickup truck was waiting for them
two armed men guns in their hands shoved
these two teenage girls in a car fearing
for their life behind folded after what
seemed like a two-year long car ride the
girls arrived to an abandoned house not
knowing where they were blindfold
removed once inside the house after 18
hours no food no water
Sarah was desperate she needed to escape
she looked around when the men were gone
and managed to find a little hole in the
wall made of iron she pushed herself
through and now she did so she cut her
leg this was a 4:00 a.m. in the morning
running through a coffee fields looking
for someone to save her life
and to save the life of her best friend
as she told us a story she lifted she
lifted up her pants to show her her
scars after getting to a police station
she found out that she was a hundred and
six kilometres away from her home going
from La Libertad to Cincinnati she also
found out
that our parents had filed the missing
report for her tragic after months of
looking for her best friend Emma
they sadly found out that she had passed
away at that moment Sara had not only
lost her best friend but she had lost
her role model she had lost hope for
every future of every woman she had ever
met
which is why giving girls access to
working with role models is crucial in
their life in fact it has been proven
that giving girls access to working with
role models increases their
interpersonal abilities now imagine not
wanting or not being motivated enough to
go to school because people outside
people that you love tell you that it's
not worth it because after all you're
just a woman your demotivated to go to
school that's the sad reality for forty
point six percent of the girls in our
country who drop out of school now
imagine being told that you can't go to
school because you have to wash the
dishes because you have to take care of
your siblings that's a sad reality for
fifteen point three percent of the girls
in our country who drop out of school if
this is not shocking I don't know what
is but like the problem I just presented
to you there's also a simple solution to
this problem empowering girls giving
girls access to role models hasn't has
proven to increase emotional health
decreased drug and alcohol usage and
encourages girls to pursue higher
education now let me tell you this story
we brought the girls MIT graduate
Salvadoran women Noemi London to one of
the talks so that she could meet Lisa
got to meet the girls while the
beginning our first-generation girls
only 16% of them wanted to attend higher
education now 97% of them do and it's as
simple as giving girls access to working
with and meeting role models finally
I'll introduce you to Anna Anna has been
living with her mother and her brother
for all her life she was used to that
company however one day her mother
brought someone home someone who would
only socialize with the kids with a beer
in his hand at night imagine be
a young girl having to watch this in the
fact that it's not even your father
so her grandmother decided to take her
away from her house with her brother
promising a better life
however they were broken promises as
only her brother got an opportunity to
go to college as only her brother got
support when he said he wanted to to
work while Ana was obligated to stay at
home clean the dishes learn how to cook
learn how to sew girls at things like
only girls are supposed to do because
girls in her grandmother's mind don't
deserve an education which is why she
missed her ninth grade graduation I want
you all to imagine being trapped in a
glass box there's no way to get out but
your goal is to stand on the top of the
box you try breaking the box you try
flipping it over nothing works
you work harder than the people outside
to get on top of it and then you watch
others climb up some stairs and easily
stand on top of the box and just enjoy
that's a sad reality many women face in
our country and all over the world while
men are given opportunities easily women
are not despite working hard in fact in
our country while women make up 52% of
our population
men outnumber women two to one in the
workplace besides the fact that it has
been proven the women are working with
women increases productivity in the
workplace however there's also a
solution to this female economic
empowerment what does that include
female economic empowerment basically
means giving women the power to
participate equally in the world in the
work field it means giving them a chance
to say their voice to listen to them and
to participate equally with men a study
conducted by UN women proved that if we
increase female employment rates in OECD
countries which are countries that
promote free market enterprises to match
that of Sweden we can boost that those
countries GDPs by six
dollars and it is as simple as giving
women equal opportunities to participate
in the workforce workforce with men
changing a girl's life can be as easy as
believing on them giving the right tools
to finish her education giving them
access to working with role models and
giving them equal opportunities remember
the girl I told you about the girl who
loved to play soccer that girl was me at
such an early age I witness gender
inequality a reality that many of us
face today however I didn't stand there
empty-handed I decided to do something
about it and I want to invite every
single one of you today to do the same
if there is something that you believe
in fight for it because that is the only
way that will evolve as human time thank
you
[Applause]