World Vision campaign targets support for vulnerable girls by 11 October
Former tennis champion Jelena Dokic used a Parliament House event in Canberra on 16 September 2026 to press Australians to sponsor 1,000 vulnerable girls before International Day of the Girl on 11 October.
Dokic gave the keynote address at World Vision Australia’s parliamentary breakfast for International Day of the Girl. Senior political figures attended, including Foreign Minister Senator Penny Wong and Deputy Opposition Leader Senator Jane Hume.
The appearance moved Dokic’s advocacy into federal politics after she travelled to Bangladesh with World Vision Australia. There she met girls and young women dealing with child marriage, gender-based violence and blocked access to schooling.
Dokic is an ambassador for the charity’s 1,000 Girls campaign, which is seeking 1,000 sponsors by 11 October. Australians can support the appeal at worldvision.com.au/sponsor-a-girl or by calling 13 32 40.
Bangladesh trip shaped Dokic’s appeal
One of the girls Dokic met was Ruby, who was married at 12 and became a mother while still a child. Dokic has spoken publicly about abuse in her own childhood and said Ruby’s story felt painfully familiar.
She said: “I’m incredibly proud to be an ambassador for World Vision’s 1,000 Girls campaign and to have the opportunity to bring the stories of the girls I met in Bangladesh into Parliament House.”
World Vision Australia framed the campaign around global figures on girls’ safety and education. According to the charity, a girl is forced into child marriage every three seconds, 122 million girls are out of school, and almost one in three women and girls will face violence in their lifetime.
The parliamentary breakfast brought together senior women from parliament, government and diplomacy. Dokic used that audience to argue that girls who rarely reach powerful rooms should still be heard by national leaders.
Her Canberra speech followed years of speaking about reclaiming her own voice after abuse. In this campaign, she has linked that personal history to girls she met overseas who have little control over major decisions in their lives.
World Vision Australia chief executive Grant Bayldon said the campaign was about individual lives rather than abstract totals. He said each figure represented “a girl with a name, a dream and enormous potential”.
