There is probably nothing more that I can add to promote the cause of female education that Malala Yousafzai has not already said. Even so, here a few statistics to chew on: Over 60% of out-of-school children in India are girls 40% of schools do not have separate toilet facilities for girls; 23% of girls drop out at puberty India's GDP could increase by $5.5 billion if enrolment for girls in schools was increased by just 1% Project Nanhi Kali, the NGO that I am supporting by running this half-marathon, provides academic and material support to improve the access of Indian girls to schools and prevent them from dropping out. You can sponsor a girl in primary school with a yearly contribution of just Rs 3000 ($50) and a girl in secondary school with a yearly contribution of Rs 4200 ($67). This money is used to run academic support centres outside school, provide books and uniforms to girls, and conduct community programmes for parents. The poem below was submitted to a global poetry campaign for girls' education by Preetha, a Class 8 student at a school for some of the most socially and economically disadvantanged children in India: "They shoved me / to the depths of darkness / where they lay. They stung my heart / at the most tender part. / They slashed my naked wounds / trying to pull me down / from where I was, above them, / higher, prouder than ever." Please help girls like Preetha emerge from the darkness by donating money on this page. No amount is too small.