Boys back up the Girl Effect

This post was so good, we just had to borrow it. Julie Trell of Salesforce.com brought this report back from Uganda, which she shared on the blog of a fellow Girl Effect champion, 10x10. Above the video is Julie's narrative of what took place, and below the video is a transcript of one boy's argument in favor of educating girls.

Julie:

"Youth never ceases to surprise and I was reminded of this on a recent trip to a school in Uganda. I had a chance to visit Sr. Miriam Dugan Primary School in Kamwokya, a slum in Kampala, Uganda. I dropped in on a class where 70-100 students, crammed into desks, were practicing their debating skills.

The topic at hand was whether Africa should continue to receive foreign aid. I found myself very impressed with the students’ ability to articulate and debate the weighty issues at hand, and I decided to pose a question to further the discussion: What are your beliefs on the importance of girls education? One young boy stood up and eloquently presented the following:"



Student debater:

"Yes, yes, it's just a very good question. Because, you see, these girls are not what most people perceive them to be.
Now, there's one problem, the older generation, think like the way things were done is the way they are supposed to be done now. And in the future for ever and ever. But this is not the right mentality, because, these people are also brilliant. They can be of use to a country like Uganda. Which badly..and you see, there's something that I've realized, most girls at advanced levels they take science, which is very surprising for me. And you see, Uganda needs more scientists now. To find that we have only one female engineer in Uganda is very embarrassing to me. Very embarrassing.
But with education, you find that this thing is going to be solved. And Uganda is going to be as developed as America or any other country."

Is that impressive, or what?