I am the father of a beautiful three-year-old girl. There is nothing more important to me in the entire world, and that is the truth. I look at her and she is my little girl, but she is growing up, and will continue to do so. I talk to co-workers with teenage daughters about what that's like, unable to really comprehend my precious little baby being that big. (Also, when she was one year old I watched the movie Thirteen
for the first time and it scared me to death.) I wonder what life has in store for my girl; I wonder what she will choose to do with it. It's up to her; there will be money provided in the form of a college fund, and she can do whatever she likes with this – whether she chooses to use it to go to college or decides she would rather travel the world, it's fine with me (but, of course, she will have to live with any consequences should she decide later she wishes she had gone to college and now can't afford it). In all of this, there is one thing I take for granted, but which, thinking about, I become incredibly thankful for: that the fact of her getting an education is not even a question, but a certainty. This is not the case throughout the world.
We have previously discussed [4] the documentary
Girl Rising [5]
, directed by Academy Award-nominated documentarian Richard Robbins. The film features nine girls from nine countries – Cambodia, India, Nepal, Egypt, Peru, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Haiti, and Sierra Leone – following them on their journey as they strive for equal educational rights. These are strong girls with strong minds who yearn for the tools to make them even stronger.
Village 8 presents a special one-time screening of
Girl Rising
tonight, Tuesday, at 7:30. Village 8 is located at 4014 Dutchmans Lane. Further theater information and advance ticket sales can be found at the Village 8 website [6].
(A side note: the Oscar-winning documentary
is also the story of children striving towards a better life; it's moving and powerful, and deserves a watch.)
Image:
Girl Rising
website