Why don’t we give the Girl Child a chance to help Humanity?
It’s delusional to know that in this 21st century,
that there are places where giving birth to a girl child is a calamity,
a society where girls, ladies and women are being stigmatized because of their gender thereby restricting them from partaking in the functions and activities of the society.
The female figure has played an important role in developing and building humanity,
ranging from time immemorial, from the ancient times to the modern day world.
A girl child who is supposed to be seen as a blessing is still being despised in many parts of the world. Some countries like China, India, Romania and Africa, the girl child is seen as a creation created by a lesser God and their worth is only noticed in the their husband houses, they still follow the traditions by circumcising the girl child, and they say that educating a girl child is waste of time and resources, they quote ''the girl child cannot continue the family legacy, why train her?''
Statistics have revealed that the female child tends to survive more in times of war, famine, and are known for their power of resistance. At a very young age of 2\3, a female child in some countries are already being taught domestics chores, her roles and function in the house, history have also revealed some of the women who helped in building and reconstructing the world.
Florence Nightingale, with her writing was able to inspire worldwide health care reforms; Katherine Johnson one of NASA’s brightests 'computer' who intricately calculated the trajectory of the 1969 Apollo 11 mission to the moon; Margaret Hamilton a software engineer who took humanity to the moon; Ada Lovelace who was said to have written the instructions for the first computer in the mid-1800s. The likes of Mirian Makeba popolarly known as Mama Africa, who was an ambassador and civil rights activist; Malala Yousafzai, at a very young age stood up against the Taliban in Pakistan insisting that girls should receive education. Aretha Franklin who was known as the queen of soul was able to win hearts with her voice; Clara Barton an independent nurse during the civil war, after a visit to england returned to US and formed the red cross; Mother Theresa also who founded the missionaries of charities; Harriet Tubman also escaped slavery, became a leading abolitionist and led hundreds of slaves to freedom; Englantyne Jebb, a nurse during the first world war, she stood up for children and founded the humanitarian organisation ‘save the children’. These women were once girls and they grew up knowing they would help the world then why don’t we give the Girl child a chance to help humanity?
I want to share the story of a girl called Shana, who was a victim of child marriage. At the age of eleven she was denied the right to education and forced to get married to a man 4 times older than her age. Born in the era where male child dominated; where female children were seen as liability not asset; a home where a pregnant wife would pray to God to miscarry rather than having a female child; a society where girls were used to make money to enrich the family and have a good name. Poor young Shana filled with sorrow on her wedding day looked at her mum and said, ‘’Why am I a girl? Why am I not a boy and why am I supposed to marry? Can’t I be a Doctor? I want to help people mum" Rhetorical questions her mum could not give answers to. At 13 Shana died due to some complications at child birth, she was pregnant.
Have you ever thought of being born in a place where you are deprived from the basic human rights like:
Right to education
Right to religion
Right to expresssion
Right to justice
Right to own properties and be independent?
A place where all these rights are substituted with rights to remain silent, right to cleaning the house, washing of dishes and become amacchine to manufacture kids! A horrible life!
We hear stories of people everday, and we also hear motivational talks but what difference can we make? Are we going to fold our hands and watch? Let’s take a bold step of makng a difference.
To the goverment we employ to empower girls by creating means and good methods of educating the girl child, ‘help her see a future outside just being an ingnorant baby-mother’.
To the human rights activist we plead, ‘stand up for girls who are still being suffering from violence and maltreatments’.
To the the world we say,
A girl child is like a morning dew
don’t tell her adieu
Educate her and tell others to do same,
To every girl out there, ‘don’t feel discriminated, your gender is your beauty, you can do anything, JUST BELIEVE
Together let's say:
NO TO GIRL CHILD VIOLENCE!
NO TO CHILD MARRIAGE!
NO TO RAPE!
NO TO GENDER DISCRIMINATION!
IF YOU EDUCATE A FEMALE CHILD, YOU EDUCATE A NATION.