a generation of female leaders in the making
Out of a total of 7.8 billion people in this world, approximately 1.1 billion are girls under age 18. These girls like everyone else have the potential to be a generation of female leaders, entrepreneurs and change-makers making positive impacts in global development.
Sadly, however, girls face a number of unique challenges that are hindrances to their growth and ability to live to their full potentials.
- ● Every year, close to 12 million girls below age 18 are married off before they can understand what marriage is all about and what is expected of them.
- ● According to statistics 130 girls worldwide are still out of school
- ● About 15 million adolescent girls from 15 to 19 years have had to experience rape &
- ● Hundreds of girls have had to endure harmful practices that negatively affects their physical and mental wellbeing under the consent of parents or guardians
Young girl are impacted by a gender-biased world
According to UNFPA’s 2020 state of the world report;
- ● 200 million girls and women alive today have been affected by female genital mutilation with an estimated 52 million girls and women having been cut by doctors, nurses and midwives.
- ● 650 million girls have been married as children, often by poor, uneducated families without their consent in return for financial gain.
- ● A total of 33000 girl-child marriages happen every day around the world transcending cultures, countries and religion.
- ● Increasing gender-biased sex selection with about a quarter of parents with two girls opting for a gender-biased selection in order to avoid having a third girl child.
We support girls world wide!
As today marks the international day of the girl child, we wish to bring to light all these challenges and more facing the girl child, blocking their freedom and right to dream of and have the future they desire and call for collective efforts from all governments, civil society, development partners and stakeholders to end this shameful practices.
IFM-SEI believes that all children whether male or female must have access to their rights and be empowered to fight for them to build the world they wish to live in. Given the theme for this year’s international day of the girl-child: My voice, our equal future, we wish to re-eco the UN and the voice of all girls around the world to say that girls everywhere deserve to;
- ● Live free from gender-based violence, harmful practices and HIV and AIDS
- ● Learn new skills towards the futures they choose
- ● Lead as a generation of activists accelerating social change
an equal and equitable future for girls and everyone!
In this regard we wish to state that;
- ● All girls need to have the required support to access their rights to a safe, educated and healthy life
- ● Working towards a prosperous, sustainable and equitable future by investing in the realization of the right of girls all over the world
- ● Enforce laws and policies at local, national levels to cease all forms of discriminations against the girl child and having strict punishment for perpetrators.
- ● Ensuring girls are empowered to make the choices regarding their body and marriage and to be free to choose when and with whom they want to marry
- ● Using a human right based approach to ensure the rights of all girls and women everywhere
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