When I walked into my gym I got a pleasant shock.

The receptionist was wearing a school uniform.

I started laughing. I knew why. Last time I saw someone in a school uniform, it was for the same  cause: Do it in a Dress.

Do It In A Dress is a fund raising campaign for the One Girl charity  to ensure that girls are educated in Africa.

So why is a man writing about educating girls?

Because it’s personal.

I’ve seen first hand the power of educating girls. If only from a first world point of view.

Sixty years ago, my maternal grandfather died too early. He left a large family. Consequently,he left his wife (my maternal grandmother) some major challenges.

Not the least of which was financial.

Which created an educational problem. Should she encourage all the family members to get the best education? Just the boys? Or the girls as well?

The choice she made has reverberated and resonated down three generations (and counting).

She encouraged both her sons and daughters to get the best education. And against all odds, all the children did way better than their circumstances would ever let them.

One of those daughters became a teacher and mother to me.

Whether she was teaching or not, in school or out of school, my mother lived the importance of having a great education. She knew that an education gives you choices.

Which is why I’m choose to be educated. And still am being educated.

Hopefully I’ve encouraged my children in the same way. They’re educating themselves too. And realising the wider choices they have.

Now taking this story back into the third world, educating girls obviously creates an immensity of choices for girls.

And all of their children and their children’s children.