Today, 62 million adolescent girls around the world are not receiving an education.

Together, Global Poverty Project and the band Coldplay would like to change this. As partners, the dynamic duo will encourage countries to vote in favor of global education, ideally announcing their support at the Global Citizen Festival in September, where Coldplay will perform.

If countries fund continued education, extreme poverty can be alleviated. An annual $39 billion will provide these girls with 12 years of free, sustainable education – the same amount it costs to fund eight days of global military spending. Continued education has the power to provide the impoverished with sustainable livings, better health and overall independence.

In the past several years, Coldplay has positively used their fame to shed light on the issue of global poverty. As a headliner at the 2015 Global Citizen Festival this September, the English band will bring attention to the Global Goals, a set of 17 initiatives that seek to end extreme poverty, inequality and climate change. The first goal is to end poverty, but the fourth goal is to ensure unbiased, quality education for all humans.

Due to gender inequality, girls are often refused an education. Not only is providing girls with an education a basic human right, but it will also help to break the cycle of extreme global poverty. Girls that go to school are more likely to postpone unwanted marriages and pregnancies, are less susceptible to HIV and AIDS and gain knowledge and skills that lead to a sustainable life with increased earning.

Coldplay is calling on world leaders to support global education to ensure that all humans are granted access to quality education, especially girls that are held back by outdated gender inequalities. Through social media, partnerships with honorable nonprofits and their earned fame, Coldplay chooses to stand up for the girls, understanding that education has the power to end global poverty.

– Sarah Sheppard

Sources: Global Citizen, Global Goals, UNICEF
Photo: Under the Gun Review