Meet Beth. A 15-year old girl who lives in Nan Plim, a small community on the rural Island of Lagonav in Haiti.

Across Lagonav, Beyond Borders has been implementing an 18-graduation program, which focuses on providing families with the resources they need to rise out of ultra-poverty with independence and dignity. Bethany’s mother, Diana, recently graduated from this program and Beth recognizes the difference that has been made to empower herself and her young sisters!

“We did not live very well before. Then my mom started the [graduation] program and we started to see some big changes!” Beth told us, “They gave my mom a house and a latrine. Life started to take a different path.”

Before having the opportunity to participate in this program, Beth told us that her family did not have their own home and were living with their grandmother.

Now Diana’s earnings from selling the vegetables grown in their family garden provide her with enough income to ensure Beth and her sisters always attend school and never miss class due to unpaid school fees.

(Beth and her younger sisters)

We know the overwhelming difference that education has in the lives of girls like Beth and the bright future of possibility they have when they can achieve their educational goals. In fact, an extra year of education can help a girl earn 15-25% more as an adult!

Empowering mothers like Diana to develop their own sustainable small businesses has a lasting effect on their daughters; girls grow up in safe homes with access to clean water and sanitation with the opportunity to attend school every day!

Girls like Beth, and her sisters, are only able to realize their Girl Power when they are free, educated and safe in their communities. Through the work of Beyond Borders in Haiti, these dreams are starting to become a reality.

We invite you to learn more about the Girl Power Haiti Campaign and its work in the lives of girls like Beth by visiting: www.girlpowerhaiti.org