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Empowerment can be said to be the process of becoming stronger and more confident, especially in controlling one’s life and claiming one’s rights. Today’s girls are the women of tomorrow. To empower them, inequality and gender gaps must be reduced, which will culminate in strong women leaders. Empowering a girl child means empowerment in all aspects of their identity. It is about empowering girls to let them take their own decisions. Nurturing the girl child is a way of insuring the future against absenteeism of women from different socio-political and economical spheres of the country.
When we think that worldwide, more than 60 million girls are not in school, 20 million girls in Africa undergo female genital mutilation and 80 percent of girls in rural Africa don’t have access to education, we realize the problems of the current approach to development.
Society says girls are not inferior to boys, but what are they getting from the society? The undeniable truth though, is that a lot of girls never get what they truly deserve. Gender bias, culturally imbibed malpractices, human trafficking, child marriage, poor health and sanitation are some of the numerous problems that continue to cause troubles for girls.
The biggest of them all, is lack of education.
As Lynne Featherstone puts it, “High rates of maternal mortality and violence against women make Nigeria one of the toughest places in the world to be born a girl”. Of all the children not in school, girls are in higher numbers than boys. This ultimately interprets to a higher number of women being illiterate, compared to men. Provision of basic education is a very key assurance of girls being given greater personal power and independence. You educate a girl child, you educate a generation. Making better choices for themselves is made easy with no need to depend on those around them for the same. This ability is a necessity and shouldn’t be treated as a luxury.
To solve problems, we need to be able to identify them first. A lack of education prevents many girls from doing this. Without knowing their rights, they can never bridge the gap to their dreams.
Some girls still have their ambitions questioned. Thus a very few make it to the top. Illiteracy isn’t the only problem, flawed perceptions can be just as dangerous.
The United Nations, as well as a majority of nations and different organizations across the globe, have developed and organized programs which aim to ameliorate gender inequalities, various programs that are geared towards aiding young girls and women have a voice in the society and achieve their full potential have also been set up.
Empowerment of girls and young women shouldn’t be an ‘option’ for a modern society, it should have already happened a long time ago.
Today, let us give a face and a voice to that girl child who has long been ignored. Every girl has the right to be in charge of her future and her fate, and we have the collective obligation to protect her rights and promote her wellbeing.
~ Adedamola Arogundade, Graduate Intern at Redcare HMO.
