HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE GIRL CHILD MOVEMENT

In 1995, the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action called out girls’ rights which started a much-needed wave of international support for young girls. It was the most progressive act for working towards equality and guaranteeing better options for girls all around the world. As a continuation of this, the United Nations General Assembly declared the 11th of October to be the International Day of the Girl Child. International day of the girl child,also referred to as “Day of the Girls”, since being adopted as a celebrated day by the United Nations in December 2011, seeks to empower girls and champion the fulfillment of their human rights with the main objective of the movement being to promote the training and education of girls so as to create young successful women. The movement has also strived to bring to the limelight the needs and challenges of girls around the world.2

This Year’s Theme
The theme of International Day of the Girl Child 2020 was ‘My Voice, our Equal Future’ which sought to amplify the voices of young girls in their fight for equal opportunities. Organizations such as UNICEF are still campaigning under this slogan. In 2021 the theme was “Digital generation, Our generation”. This year’s theme is “Our Time is Now, Our Rights, Our Future” and the values and aims of this current campaign are:3
• Live free from gender-based violence, harmful practices, and HIV and AIDS.
• Learn new skills for the future they choose.
• Lead a generation of activists in accelerating social change.

Africa Youth Trust’s Contributions Towards This Year’s Theme

(i) Supporting Survivors of GBV through the Access to Justice Project:
Africa Youth Trust established a project, the Access to Justice project, aimed at putting an end to gender-based violence and advocating for justice for women and girls in informal settlements who experience violence. This has been possible through the partnership with ActionAid, an organization that has been essential in the establishment of a toll-free helpline that provides emergency and other forms of services to survivors of gender-based violence. The toll-free line has enabled more women and girls to come forward to report incidents of gender-based violence, to get assistance in emergency situations where they need either an ambulance or the assistance of a police officer or counselor, and to receive justice once their abuser is apprehended. All of this is made possible through an effective team of system operators who reach out to survivors once they text “Help” to the toll-free helpline 21094, a medical team that responds to survivors who are in need of medical services, a caseworker who regularly checks up on the survivors’ wellbeing, children’s protective services who ensure the safety of children, police officers who respond to the survivors at the scene where the abuse has taken place and a legal team that represents the survivors pro bono.

(ii) Giving Girls Access to Education:
Africa Youth Trust through the Gender Department has been working in conjunction with various civil groups, NGOs, multiple representatives from the county government, and women from the community in order to push for girls’ right to education. Our organization has been able to do this by assisting in organizing public participation meetings where women from the community can openly and freely discuss the issues affecting them and the changes and issues they would like to see addressed in the next phase of the County Integrated Development Plan. One of the most prevalent issues was concerning education and the difficulty girls face when before they go to school which is the issue of unpaid care work. Unpaid care work includes; fetching water from long distances, doing house chores, and taking care of younger siblings. Other issues included traveling long distances to school and access to quality and free sanitary towels in schools which is also another factor hindering girls’ education.

(iii) Empowering Survivors of GBV:
Africa Youth Trust has sought to empower survivors of abuse both economically and emotionally. A lot of the survivors once they seek justice against their abuser are left without the means to feed and support their families. Our organization has managed to empower women economically through our partnership with ActionAid where we help women set up businesses in areas they are passionate about by providing them with seed capital, safehouses provided through cooperation with partners that offer survivors and their families free and safe housing that allows them to focus on their business and for girls, going to school. Our counselors provide counseling to girls and women who have survived abuse and through our network of survivors, women and girls have managed to find a community of people who share their experiences. 

INSPIRATIONAL WORDS FROM INFLUENTIAL WOMEN IN HISTORY

 “Educating girls isn’t just good for the girls, it’s good for all of us. The future of our world is only as bright as the future of our girls.” – Michelle Obama, former First Lady of the US.

“Courage, sacrifice, determination, commitment, toughness, heart, talent, guts. That’s what little girls are made of; the heck with sugar and spice.” – Bethany Hamilton.

“When you educate a girl, you kickstart a cycle of success. It makes economic sense. It makes social sense. It makes moral sense. But, it seems, it’s not common sense yet.” – Queen Rania of Jordan. 

Article written by Gillianne Celestine