Girl Rising Seeks to Empower Girls and Transform Developing Economies through Education

Strategic Partnership between Intel Corporation and 10x10 Underscores Critical Mission to End Gender Inequality in Education

• Intel and the 10x10 campaign, partners on the new feature film Girl Rising, aimed at achieving gender equity in education and accelerating economic development.
• Each year of secondary schooling increases a girl’s future wages by 10 to 20 percent. At the national level, increasing the share of women with secondary education by just 1 percent increases a country's annual GDP by an average of .3 percent.

KUALA LUMPUR, May 29, 2013 – Sokha was a Cambodian child of the dump: orphaned and forced to pick through garbage to survive. However, she has since found her way to school through a series of miracles and is now a star student on the brink of a brilliant and once unimaginable future.

Sokha’s story is one of nine extraordinary tales of inspiration and hope portrayed in Girl Rising - an innovative feature film about the power of education to change a girl - and the world. Girl Rising is powered by a strategic partnership between Intel Corporation and 10x10, together with distribution partner CNN Films. Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Liam Neeson, Cate Blanchette, Selena Gomez and other A-list actors contribute voice performances to the film which also features original music from Academy Award winner Rachel Portman, in collaboration with Hans Zimmer.

Panelists posing after the screening of Girl Rising. (L-R) : Loo Cheng Cheng - Employee Communications Director of Intel Malaysia, Maureen Greenwood Basken – Executive Director of Women, Girls & Population United Nations Foundation, Holly Gordon – Executive Director  & Executive Producer of Girl Rising, Dr Feven Tessaw – Sexual & Reproductive Health Program Coordinator CARE Ethopia, and Ranjeetha Sivajanam – Fellow 2012 Teach for Malaysia.

In an exclusive media screening of Girl Rising here today, Loo Cheng Cheng, Employee Communications Director, Intel Malaysia said, “Through this film, we've seen the inspiring transformation that can occur when girls are empowered with education. Here in Asia and around the world, Intel is taking the vital message of 'Girl Rising' into action by working with 10x10 and policymakers to improve gender equity in education. When the lives of girls are transformed, so are those of everyone they touch.”

The media screening of Girl Rising was held in conjunction with the global Women Deliver 2013 conference which opened just yesterday. The screening of the feature film was also followed by a panel session featuring esteemed speakers including Holly Gordon, 10x10’s executive director, Maureen Greenwood Basken, executive director of Women, Girls & Population, United Nations Foundation, Dr. Feven Tassew, the Sexual and Reproductive Health Program coordinator for CARE Ethiopia as well as Ms. Ranjeetha Sivajanam, Teach for Malaysia Fellow for 2012.

“By sharing the personal stories of these nine girls, 'Girl Rising' illustrates just how important education is in the movement to empower women and girls,” said Holly Gordon, 10x10’s executive director. “In an extension of our partnership with Intel, we are now working to provide decision makers in developing countries with scalable policy solutions to expand gender equity in education. This marks the next step in our commitment to change both minds and policy to positively impact girls’ lives.”

Loo Cheng Cheng - Employee Communications Director of Intel Malaysia with Holly Gordon – Executive Director  & Executive Producer of Girl Rising.

According to the Council on Foreign Relations report, "What Works in Girls' Education," each year of secondary schooling increases a girl's future wages by 10 to 20 percent. At the national level, increasing the share of women with secondary education by just 1 percent increases a country's annual GDP by an average of .3 percent. Yet studies from the United Nations and International Labour Organization show that in 2009, girls accounted for 53 percent of all out-of-school children and 87 million women were unemployed in 2010, up from 76 million in 2007.

Together, Intel and 10x10 will develop and host gender equity and education policy workshops, and develop regional policy frameworks based on key gender needs. The workshops will help governments think deeply about issues of gender equity as they develop national policy plans for broader education transformation.

Through the policy workshops, Intel and 10x10 will help leaders determine how to utilize technology to facilitate gender equity across school policy, curriculum and assessment, teacher development, and research and evaluation. These efforts will build on Intel's existing policy framework, which leverages education policy and information and communications technologies (ICTs) to create mechanisms for empowering girls and achieving gender equity in education at scale.