Facebook women’s event hears calls for all girls to get education

Theirworld founder Sarah Brown addresses the audience

Facebook and the charity Theirworld hosted a star-studded gathering in London in honour of the 103rd International Women’s Day.

The Facebook Women In Timeline event on March 4 saw 150 women from the worlds of technology, media, music and the charity sector come together to begin the countdown to International Women’s Day on March 8.

An audience including BBC Radio 2 DJ Jo Whiley, actress Arabella Weir and TV news presenter Penny Smith watched the new A World at School video A New Global Power: Girls With Books, introduced by Theirworld founder Sarah Brown. The film highlights the growing global movement campaigning for all girls to realise their right to an education.

Amrit Kaur Lohia on stage with her award

Sarah spoke about the need to put pressure on the world in order to get all children into education by 2015.

She told the audience: “Every year we educate a girl it increases her income by 10%. We must do everything we can to ensure that girls get access to education.”

Sarah also presented 22-year-old Amrit Kaur Lohia with an award. Amrit is a youth advocate for Envision and has been mentoring children since she was 16.

She said she was honoured to be with so many inspiring females and told the audience how important education was to her.

Paloma Faith performs a song from her forthcoming album

Amrit added: “To me education is empowerment. If you can give someone education you give them sustainable empowerment.”

A surprise guest was singer Paloma Faith, who performed three tracks from her upcoming album. She told the all-female audience that she was delighted to be at the event.

Paloma said: “I feel so much more comfortable performing in front of women. I was raised by about 20 strong women, my mother was a proud feminist and I am proud to be supporting the cause of girls’ education today.”