Photo by Michelle Amarante
The U.N. has declared October 11th as The International Day of The Girl. We live in a world where some of us can take for granted the rights of our daughters. While in other areas, girls live in oppression and subjugation. In Pakistan, just the other day, a 14 year old girl was shot for speaking up about girls rights to education. When watching the documentary Half The Sky last week, one of my favorite points made was that to educate a girl, is to educate a community. By excluding their girls from the education process, a nation is really cheating itself out of half of its full potential. Just imagine the possibilities if these countries educated their girls along with the boys. Only then can a community truly rise to its full potential.
On December 19, 2011, the United Nations General Assembly declared October 11 as the International Day of the Girl Child, to recognize girls’ rights and the unique challenges girls face around the world.
For its first observance, this year’s Day will focus on child marriage, which is a fundamental human rights violation and impacts all aspects of a girl’s life. Child marriage denies a girl of her childhood, disrupts her education, limits her opportunities, increases her risk to be a victim of violence and abuse, jeopardizes her health and therefore constitutes an obstacle to the achievement of nearly every Millennium Development Goal (MDG) and the development of healthy communities.-UN.org
Click here to learn how you can help to empower girls around the world. With the support of the world behind them, I cannot wait to see how our girls around the globe will change the world, and what they will accomplish!
Photos: Elizabeth Atalay
I wrote this post as part of The Global Team of 200, a highly specialized group of members of Mom Bloggers for Social Good that concentrates on issues involving women and girls, children, world hunger and maternal health.
Our Motto: Individually we are all powerful. Together we can change the world. We believe in the power of collective action to help others and believe in ourselves to make this world a better place for our children and the world’s children.
