Girls’ Education Around the Globe Gets a Boost From Apple and the Malala Fund

Earlier this year, Apple announced that it would be joining forces with the Malala Fund as its first Laureate partner. The girls’ education-focused non-profit, led by Nobel Peace Prize winner and girls’ rights activist Malala Yousafzai, aims to expand education opportunities for girls around the world. With Apple’s support, the Fund hopes to increase the number of grants awarded by its Gulmakai Network to men and women advocating for girls’ education in developing countries, and to expand funding in Latin America and India.

“My dream is for every girl to choose her own future,” Yousafzai said at the time of the announcement. “Through both their innovations and philanthropy, Apple has helped educate and empower people around the world. I am grateful that Apple knows the value of investing in girls and is joining Malala Fund in the fight to ensure all girls can learn and lead without fear.”

Today, the tech giant announced that ten of its Apple Developer Academies in Brazil would be working closely with the fund to help it achieve its goals. Yousafzai visited some of those academies in Rio today to discuss the students’ work and their ideas for supporting the fund’s mission by developing apps that enhance education opportunities for girls across the globe, facilitate more efficient communication between its network of educators and policy makers, and help make the work of the fund easier as it scales and grows.

“Education is in Apple’s DNA,” Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives, tells FASHION. “It’s a great equalizer. There’s no limit to what people can do with education.” Apple’s collaboration with the Malala Fund is an example of what happens when “technology [is used] in service of humanity,” says Jackson, and is sure to bring young girls around the world one step closer to what so many of us take for granted.

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