When Sa’a jumped from the moving truck, she wasn’t thinking about her education that had just been cut short. She was fleeing for her life.

One of the more than 250 girls kidnapped from their school in Chibok, Nigeria, two years ago, Sa’a recounted the heartbreaking story to members of Congress last week, renewing calls to rescue the hundreds of school girls still missing and finally #bringbackourgirls.

Sa’a is now a college student in the US. Her story is a reminder of what is possible when girls are given the chance to receive quality education in a safe place. Her story also illustrates what we stand to lose when a girl’s education is taken away.

Every day, BRAC helps girls all over the world reach their full potential through education and leadership opportunities. There are millions of girls like Sa’a, and we are determined to ensure that no girl is born into a community where she isn’t given the chance to learn and become a leader.

In Karamoja, Uganda, BRAC enabled Maria, a child bride forced to marry at the age of 10, to earn the education she had been denied. Now, she is a teacher working to educate girls in a region where they were previously denied an education.

Girls in the world’s poorest countries continue to fight for access to quality education, as well as job and leadership opportunities. According to the Brookings Institution, a 100-year gap persists between education levels in developed and developing countries. And this is worse for girls. There are 33 million fewer girls than boys in primary school globally, according to the UN Global Education First Initiative.

At the same time, the evidence tells us that educating girls is among the best tools in our tool box for improving development outcomes globally. Educated girls grow into women who invest 90 per cent of their income in their families, improving the health, nutrition and education of their children. Girls’ education has also proven to delay early marriage, and each additional year of primary schooling for girls is correlated to a 10 – 20 per cent increase in their future wages.

That’s why BRAC is proud to report significant progress on its pledge to support girls’ education in developing countries.

There is much to celebrate: overall, BRAC has raised more than 75 per cent of its pledged USD 280 million to support girls’ education, work and leadership opportunities. We have also trained 44,485 girl mentors, marking an ambitious 85 per cent progress against our goal of 52,000 trained mentors by 2020. These kinds of outcomes would not be possible without the generous support of our many funders and partners.

As part of its CHARGE commitment, BRAC has empowered more than 30,000 girls already in their transition to work – but there is still much to do. We know that educated, empowered women are more likely to break the cycle of poverty for their families. We also know that a generation of female leaders will keep working to close the gender gap in classrooms and workplaces, breaking that cycle of inequality. BRAC wants to deepen and expand its ELA programme to reach an additional 192,000 girls by 2020 with robust and relevant livelihood training that will ensure sustainable economic independence.