International Day of the Girl – October 11

October 11 is marked as International Day of the Girl.  This has been marked every year since 2012. 

According to the UN site that promotes the International Day of the Girl, the day aims to highlight and address the needs and challenges girls face, while promoting girls’ empowerment and the fulfillment of their human rights.

On the night of 14 April 2014, 276 girls were kidnapped at a government boarding school in Chibok, Nigeria.  This sparked one of the biggest social media campaigns #BringBackOurGirls  at the time.

Some managed to escape, some have been released over the course of the years that followed.  At the time of writing this blog, there were  still 100 girls still missing.  The plight of these still missing girls grieves the hearts of those that think of them, not to mention their families.

Many of these girls have also been used as suicide bombers.  The shocking fact is that many children are increasingly used as suicide bombers in Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon according to a UN report.  Equally shocking 75% of these are girls.

Because of this, even when the girls are released there is a distrust with family members as the family members themselves fear for their own safety.  Their own children have become strangers in their eyes…suspect terrorist strangers.

There was a story of one that had been freed that had returned to the kidnapper husband along with the child she had borne for him!

Buried in every girl is a president, CEO, manager, writer, artist, musician, you name it.  When we take the future away from girls through atrocities such as rape, kidnap such as the Chobok kindnapping, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), and so on, you mortgage the future of a nation.  You rob the world of another Benazir Bhutto, Mother Theresa, Rosa Parks, Marie Curie, and so on.

Someone said one girl with courage is a revolution.  We have Anne Frank as an example of this.  It is important we stand with girls around the world and fight for their rights

Here are some other interesting facts about girls:

#1  There are 1.1 billion girls in the world

#2  More than two-thirds of antidepressants prescribed to teenagers are for girls

#3  Girls are twice more talkative than boys

#4  Girls reach puberty at an earlier age than boys

#5  Globally, 65 million girls do not attend school  married before their 18th birthday/  (Source: UN Women)

#7 Girls in India are less likely to be born, taken to the doctor, go to private school or go to university

The message that is strong is that we must empower our girls.  The rights of children are important and that of girls must not be overlooked solely because of their gender.

Let’s not forget the plight of the Chibok girls and the many girls all over the world faced with similar plights that we do not hear of.  Let’s invest in our future.

Please share this blog using the hashtag #DayoftheGirl

About The Author

Zoe

Zoe met Eze (Chuck) in the 14th year of what turned out to be an 18 year ‘journey’ with mental illness. They got married less than a year of meeting with Zoe fully knowing Chuck had a diagnosis of mental illness. In the 18th year, Chuck defied the odds of mental illness. A consultant psychiatrist signed him off the mental health system with a bill of NO MENTAL ILLNESS. The consultant was so amazed by Chuck’s astonishing recovery that he even questioned how Chuck was diagnosed with mental illness all those years before, in the first place! Today Chuck is free from medication, its dependency and hospitalizations. Zoe’s award nominated book, DEFYING THE ODDS, chronicles the highs and ‘lows’ of this journey. Zoe, often writing from the standpoint of a caregiver, clearly understands that mental illness does not only affect an individual challenged with the disease, but also families, marriages and society as a whole.

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