Uganda Marks The Day Of The Girl Child

Violence is still one of the biggest problems holding girls back from achieving their full potential.

“We urge the nation to increase its ventures prioritised towards development of adolescent girls into capable women”, said HRCM’s statement. It signifies recognition that ending child marriage is pivotal to protecting the needs and rights of adolescent girls.

In Plan Canada’s newly released study, The Unfinished Business of Girls’ Rights, interviews with more than 4,000 girls in Ecuador, Nicaragua, Pakistan and Zimbabwe found that girls across the world are feeling the pain of inequality. “Imagine this phenomenon widening out from the village to the town, and the town to the city, over generations and for thousands of girls, and you can see that gradually, improving girls’ education across the globe will have a huge impact of the national and global economies”. As a result, the Ministry in partnership with UNICEF has held high level dialogues with traditional and religious leaders, engagements with senior media personnel and stakeholders, a youth dialogue and setting up of regional networks on child marriage to sensitise the public to the dangers of child marriage.

The other branch, however, makes it harder and adds to the risks she faces – child marriage, leaving school, early and unwanted pregnancies, unsafe childbirth, violence and abuse, informal and erratic employment, a hostile home life and possible displacement, and an insecure old age. And if we continue to do so, everyone in our region and in our world – communities, businesses, families, children – will suffer. Worldwide, 62 million girls do not go to school and violence is one of the main factors.

At present far too many across Asia and the Pacific are constrained by social norms, deeply-rooted gender roles and outright discrimination – including a widespread preference for boys over girls. They are more likely to have a low birth weight which can cause long-term health effects. “This will secure their rights and our common future”, he declared. HRCM urged that the adolescent girls of today should be at the same level as boys in the nation’s social, economic, technical and political fields of tomorrow. Let’s give every girl that right.

The evidence is clear.

The theme of this year’s celebration is The Power of the Adolescent Girl: Vision for 2030. It is not enough to simply lump women and children into the same category.

Invest in high quality education, skills, training, access to technology and other learning initiatives that prepare girls for life, jobs, and leadership.

At the launch of the SDGs, all member countries including Ghana, were entreated to commit to putting adolescent girls at the centre of sustainable development efforts by making a few critical investments in their present and future and one of those critical investment is menstrual hygiene management.

Probably we all should take a lesson from them and adore and celebrate the girl child.