BOSTON — Venus Williams announced her partnership with esteemed nonprofit CARE, one of the world’s largest humanitarian organizations. Her focus is to raise awareness and encourage support for young girls’ education in developing countries by supporting specific programs in Kenya and Malawi.
CARE focuses on young women and girls, with the firm belief that if women and girls are equipped with the proper resources and support, they can play a major part in alleviating global poverty. The process begins with education in certain communities, and with time and expansion, the emergence of a more educated female population will breed the potential for an improved fight against poverty worldwide.
Commenting on her new partnership, Williams expressed that she is “thrilled to be partnering with CARE to help these remarkable young women reach their life goals.” Williams took a trip to Kenya in order to see what the program would be doing there. She will support educational efforts for children in Siaya Country slums, which she visited, as well as in Nairobi.
She explained, “I saw firsthand how education can transform not just the girls themselves, but benefit their families and communities. Graduating secondary school in Malawi is a huge accomplishment and being able to continue their studies for careers means that they will help themselves while helping others too.”
Williams herself pledged $25,000 to fund a two-week campaign led by CARE for a vocational training program for young women in Malawi. Williams is passionate about this community, with 74 percent of Malawi’s population living in extreme poverty and the education of most young girls ending with primary school.
Williams will be involved through Join My Village, which is a partnership between CARE, Merck and General Mills that utilizes social media outlets to educate the global community about education for young girls in Africa and India. The program aims to use this method to help advance aid programs.
Williams is determined to not only provide services and funds, but to also encourage the support of her fans. The $25,000 she is willing to provide will only be fully accessible through the action of her fans and supporters. Fans and the general public must visit Join My Village media platforms in order to unlock money. For every “re-tweet” or “like” of JMV social media activity, $1 of this $25,000 will be unlocked over a span of two weeks.
Williams is confident that this two-week campaign will undoubtedly unlock the full $25,000 for girl’s education in Malawi and Kenya. She believes that this method will encourage education and awareness about the issue at hand by harnessing action and contribution from the public.
In addition, any other individual donations made to the Join My Village fund will be matched exactly by the fund’s corporate co-sponsors General Mills and Merck up to the amount of $25,000.
The fund in its entirety has the potential to unveil $75,000, which will be able to train up to 50 young women in Malawi’s vocational school. These women will be chosen based on outstanding academic achievement.
CARE is extremely optimistic about this new venture with Venus Williams due to her determination and fan-following.
Last year alone, CARE worked in 87 countries, reaching more than 97 million people worldwide.
Sources: CARE 1, CARE 2, Digital Journal
Photo: The Huffington Post