As a company, Nike believes in the power of human potential. At the Nike Foundation, we invest in the greatest unrealized source of human potential in the world today: adolescent girls.
In the three minutes it takes to read this, 81 adolescent girls will become child brides, and 96 adolescent girls will give birth. Two of those girls will likely die from complications in childbirth.
The reality is harsh, but we don’t see the 250 million adolescent girls living in poverty today as victims of circumstance. We believe they can play a crucial role in solving the toughest problems facing the world. Because when a girl living in poverty has the chance to reach her full potential, she isn’t the only one who escapes the circumstances she was born into. She brings her family, community and country with her. We call this the Girl Effect.