At the Simply Youth Ministry Conference, they showed the film ‘Girl Rising’. It blew me away.
Girl Rising is a global campaign to educate girls. The film portrays vulnerable girls from several countries (Egypt, Peru, Afghanistan, Haiti, Nepal to name a few) and how education has changed them or could change their circumstances. It’s a great proof of the power of storytelling, because even after a long day at the conference and despite the late hour, I was still enthralled.
That’s also because the film is beautifully made. It’s poetic, narrated by well known actors like Anne Hathaway, Liam Neeson, Meryl Streep, and others. You’re drawn into the lives of these girls, whose stories make you sad and sometimes just plain angry for what they have to endure. Between the stories, there’s astonishing stats about how just a few more years education could change the world for the better.
If you haven’t seen this film yet, you should. But be warned: it may inspire you to the point where you have to take action. You could also consider watching this with your youth group and make a project out of it, raise awareness and money for instance. As always, be sure to watch it yourself first, some stories are quite powerful and it does contain some heart breaking scenes. Talking about what they’ve seen is essential if you watch this film with your students. But it may just change their perspective and even their mission in life…
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