BRIEF INTRODUCTION OF MY GIRL, MY PRIDE

Girls face discrimination, violence and abuse every day across the world. This alarming reality underpins the International Day of the Girl Child, a new global observance to highlight the importance of empowering girls and ensuring their human rights.

Investing in girls is a moral imperative – a matter of basic justice and equality. It is an obligation under the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. It is also critical for achieving the Millennium Development Goals, advancing economic growth and building peaceful, cohesive societies.

Education for girls is one of the best strategies for protecting girls against child all forms of vices. When they are able to stay in school and avoid be consistent, girls can build a foundation for a better life for themselves and their families. And if they have already been married young, access to education, economic opportunities and health services — including HIV prevention and sexual and reproductive health — will help enrich their lives and enhance their future.

Girls are often treated as inferior and are socialized to put themselves last, thus undermining their self-esteem. Discrimination and neglect in childhood can initiate a lifelong downward spiral of deprivation and exclusion from the social mainstream. Initiatives should be taken to prepare girls to participate actively, effectively and equally with boys at all levels of social, economic, political and cultural leadership.

More than 15 million girls aged 15 to 19 give birth each year. Motherhood at a very young age entails complications during pregnancy and delivery and a risk of maternal death that is much greater than average. The children of young mothers have higher levels of morbidity and mortality. Early child-bearing continues to be an impediment to improvements in the educational, economic and social status of women in all parts of the world.

OBEJECTIVES OF THE EVENT

• Create the awareness of female vulnerability in communities.
• Protect and preserve our young females.
• Education on violence against the girl child
• Eliminate all forms of discrimination against the girl child.
• Promote the girl child’s awareness of and participation in social, economic and political life.
• Strengthen the role of the family in improving the status of the girl child.
• Advising girls against bad peer groups which promote alcoholism, smoking that could ruin their education
• Encourage workshops about girl child education to create a positive attitude towards education.
• Drop the belief that girls are only good for domestic work and then promote equal access to all.