Michelle Obama Is Back With A New Education Project For Girls

Former first lady Michelle Obama is back in business. On Thursday, which marked the sixth International Day of the Girl, she announced the launch of a new education initiative for young girls across the globe.

The Global Girls Alliance, a new international program by the Obama Foundation, has the goal of supporting grassroots leaders who understand the specific challenges teenage girls in their communities face. By supporting local leadership instead of outsiders, the program seeks to allow people within their own community to come up with the best strategies to help these adolescent girls achieve their potential through education.

"We're seeking to empower adolescent girls around the world through education, so that they can support their families, communities and countries," the former first lady wrote in an op-ed for CNN. "The evidence is clear. Girls who attend secondary school earn higher salaries, have lower infant and maternal mortality rates, and are less likely to contract malaria and HIV. And studies have shown that educating girls isn't just good for the girls, it's good for all of us."

The program will help connect these grassroots leaders with each other, to share strategies and tools. And if you want to support the program, the Obama Foundation teamed up with GoFundMe for a fundraising effort.

Girls' education has been a pillar of Obama's work both during her time in the White House and afterwards. In an exclusive Refinery29 Q&A between the former first lady and four young women from Nepal, Ghana, Guatemala, and Chicago, published this past International Women's Day, Obama made it clear that empowering girls and young women is a core part of her legacy.

She said: "I want every girl on the planet to have the same kind of opportunities that I've had, and that my daughters are having, to fulfill their potential and pursue their dreams."