A Simple Plan to Change the World — that's working today!
Jul 18, 2023
Brenda Birrell, The Global Uplift Project
A Simple Plan to Change the World — that's working today!

Brenda Birrell is The Global Uplift Project's Program Director. After graduating from Cambridge University, UK, Brenda taught High School Physics. In 1983, she and her husband moved to Los Altos where they raised two daughters. She returned to the education field in 2001 and retired in 2017 so that she could work full time for The Global Uplift Project and help  thousands of children in the developing world every year, instead of hundreds of children in the US. She loves working on all of TGUP's projects, but Save a Girl is the closest to her heart. As well as her work with TGUP, she enjoys traveling, hiking, singing, baking, listening to classical music, and spending time with family and friends.

The presentation will give a summary of The Global Uplift Project's work in the developing world, with emphasis on our Save a Girl Program that is keeping girls in school and able to reach their academic potential. For $2 a year we are providing washable, reusable, sanitary supplies and education that are stopping girls from dropping out of school. Without the kits the girls are sold as child brides, sold into the sex trade or sent to work as low paid domestic servants. You will hear how I discovered the problem, designed a solution, and have now helped more than 50,000 girls. Working with strong support from Rotary District 5170 and DG Savita, we have set up a new sewing center in Cameroon. We also have sewing centers in Kenya, Tanzania and Nepal, and are providing thousands of kits to girls in all of these countries.

The greatest preventable loss of human potential in the world. More than 20,000,000 girls in the developing world drop out of school every year because they cannot manage their period. UNICEF says it might be as many as 50,000,000.  A kit costs $6 to make, but is free to the girl. It lasts for three years. At $2 per girl per year, this might be the highest return on human investment in the world.