The Kitchen Table Where It All Began
| This blog post is part of “20 Years, 20 Stories,” a series celebrating the 20th anniversary of the 60 Million Girls Foundation. Over the next eight months, we will share the stories of the people who have shaped our journey — volunteers, partners, donors, and the girls at the heart of our mission. We hope their voices inspire you as much as they inspire us. |
One Article. One Mom. One Big Idea.
It all started with a newspaper article.
In 1999, Wanda Bedard sat down to read the paper and came across an article about the lives of women and girls living under the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. What she read stopped her cold. Girls as young as nine and ten were being married off to warlords decades older than them — robbed of their childhoods, their futures, and any chance of an education. Years later, a photograph by journalist Stephanie Sinclair would capture exactly what Wanda had read about, putting a searing human face on a reality that much of the world preferred not to see.
© Stephanie Sinclair, Freie Fotografin
“Someone really should do something about this,” Wanda kept telling her two daughters. She said it once. She said it many times. Finally, her daughters had heard enough. Their response was simple and, as it turned out, life-changing:
“Why don’t you do something about it, Mom?”
From frustration to action
Wanda took her daughters’ challenge seriously. She had always known she was fortunate — born in a country where education and opportunity were available to women, where a girl’s future wasn’t determined before she’d had a chance to dream it up herself. But for millions of girls around the world, that chance simply didn’t exist.
She began volunteering with UNICEF Quebec, learning the landscape of international development and girls’ education. And then, ready to do more, she gathered a small group of women who shared her conviction that the world could — and should — be fairer. They were eight women in total, united by a belief and a sense of urgency.
They sat down together and they got to work.
What’s in a name?
The newly formed group needed a name, and finding the right one turned out to be harder than expected. “School,” “education,” “literacy” — the words that most naturally described their mission were already taken by other organizations.
Then, in 2006, a report was published with a figure that hit like a thunderclap: sixty million girls of primary school age were out of school every year around the world. The number was staggering. It was also, the group felt, exactly right. It captured both the scale of the problem and the ambition of their goal. They would become the 60 million girls Foundation — and they would aspire to bring that number down to zero.
The cold call that kickstarted everything
The 60 million girls Foundation was officially incorporated in April 2006, and the team set itself an audacious goal: raise $100,000 CAD before the end of the year to fund its first project. The Foundation didn’t yet have charitable status. It wasn’t a known organization. The goal, by any conventional measure, was a long shot.
Wanda picked up the phone anyway.
Source: Stephen Lewis Foundation
She called the Stephen Lewis Foundation, whose work on HIV/AIDS in Africa she had followed closely. When Ilana Landsberg-Lewis answered, Wanda told her the whole story — eight women, a kitchen table, a brand-new incorporation, and a plan to raise $100,000. It must have sounded, Wanda admits, more than a little far-fetched.
Ilana listened with patience and generosity. Then she suggested a project: UMOYO, in Zambia. Her description was so compelling that the partnership was sealed on the spot. The Stephen Lewis Foundation agreed to issue tax receipts for incoming donations and, remarkably, arranged for Stephen Lewis himself to speak at 60 million girls’ fundraising event that fall.
By December 31st 2026, the $100,000 had been raised. Every dollar went to UMOYO.
Twenty years later
That kitchen table conversation has since grown into something Wanda and her team members could scarcely have imagined on that first day. Today, the 60 million girls Foundation has supported hundreds of thousands of girls and boys across more than 20 countries, investing $5,400,000 CAD in more than 40 projects.
Wanda with students in Guatemala. Photo credit: Josiane Farand, 2019
Wanda surrounded by students in Bosawas, Nicaragua. Photo credit: Josiane Farand, 2019
It began with one newspaper article, two pre-teens who wouldn’t let their mother off the hook, and eight women who believed that outrage, by itself, isn’t enough — but channeled into action just might change the world.
Inspired by Wanda’s story? Discover how you can be part of the next chapter of the 60 million girls Foundation at Get Involved – 60 million girls.