LOS ANGELES — Dozens of actors and athletes are joining a U.S. government effort to support girls’ education worldwide.

Jennifer Garner, Susan Sarandon, Alicia Keys, Anne Hathaway, Tyler Perry and pro basketball player DeAndre Jordan are among the stars speaking out about the importance of education for girls around the globe in an online video for the new Let Girls Learn initiative.

“A threat to girls’ education anywhere is a threat to progress everywhere,” “Modern Family” star Julie Bowen says in the two-minute video.

The stars were moved to make the video after the recent kidnapping of hundreds of schoolgirls in Nigeria and the Taliban’s 2012 attempted assassination of Pakistani schoolgirl and education activist Malala Yousafzai. The U.S. Agency for International Development is supporting the effort with $201 million in new education programs that will help provide safe learning opportunities for girls in Nigeria, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Jordan and Guatemala.

“All around the world, people want to change the injustices but often times don’t know exactly what they can do about it,” Keys said in a statement. “I really wanted to participate in this (video) because empowering women changes the course of our world.”

The Let Girls Learn website offers various ways for individuals and organizations to get involved.

Research shows that an educated girl is more likely to educate her children. A girl with a basic education is three times less likely to contract HIV. An extra year of education can increase a woman’s earning potential by as much as 25 percent.

“An educated girl really is the key to a healthy, more stable, more prosperous country,” said Cathy Russell, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues. “Educating girls is really one of the best investments we can make.”

This is also true in the United States, notes Soledad O’Brien, who also appears in the video.

“Investing in girls can actually move the needle in communities,” she said, “...and can actually benefit boys, because girls are the mothers of boys.”