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Warrandyte Diary, August 2014
It has been five years since the Diary’s very own Brianna Piazza finished high school, but she’s putting on a school dress again to help send girls in Sierra Leone to school.
Between August and October, Brianna will wear her school dress to raise money and awareness about girls’ education, while also completing ‘challenges’ set by donors.
The 22-year-old Do It In A Dress ambassador for Australian organisation, One Girl, hopes to raise at least $5,000.
“Anybody can donate and dare me to do something in my dress – it could be physically enduring or involve facing my fears,” Brianna said.
“I decided to do this because, in my view, nothing is as scary as being a girl in Sierra Leone whose parents can’t afford to send her to school. Millions of girls across the world don’t go to school but their brothers do and these girls know an education is their way out of poverty.”
“Educating girls has been proven to reduce HIV/AIDS, child marriage, maternal and child mortality, and even increase a country’s GDP more than if we only educate boys. Educated girls in Sierra Leone also tend to have fewer children, which tackles the overpopulation issue.”
So far, she has been dared to go ice skating in a dress, to the gym, swim with sharks and go flying in a dress – she even came to work for the Diary in her dress and has raised enough to send two girls to school for a year.
She’s looking for donations from businesses and individuals, along with ideas for challenges that would take place in Warrandyte.
Brianna says she got involved after learning that girls in parts of Sierra Leone where One Girl works are more likely to be sexually assaulted than they are to attend high school.
“Those are some pretty crappy odds and that easily could have been me if I wasn’t lucky enough to be born in Australia.”
http://www.facebook.com/briannadoesitinadress
Categories: women's issues
Brianna Piazza 