Shoutbox » February 2010 - The Girl Effect

Introduction

What is the Girl Effect? www.girleffect.org states that 'the girl effect' is “powerful social and economic change brought about when girls have the opportunity to participate.”

In order for girls to be able to participate in the growth and health of their communities, they need access to education. With education, girls stop being forced into early marriages that perpetuate conditions of poverty and oppression. Instead, girls gain skills that can help them start businesses, which can, in turn, help finance community projects, such as clean water which reduces illness.

Currently, education for the girl child in the developing world is significantly worse than for boys. In places such as the Kinango District of Coast Province, Kenya, discriminatory cultural norms prevent girls from attending school for long periods, or even at all. Many poor girls are forced into marriage at a very young age, which also makes them vulnerable to early pregnancies, HIV and sexual violence.

Approximately one quarter of girls in developing countries are not in school. And out of the world's 130 million out-of-school youth, 70 percent are girls. What needs to be done to make girls valuable? Real change must happen to empower girls and women of the world.

The story of Elimu is typical of a girl in the developing world...

Every morning, as the cockerels start crowing, Elimu’s dream of becoming a doctor comes to a sudden halt. “When will all this come to an end?” she asks herself. Elimu is an 11-year-old pupil in class four at Maendeleo Primary School.

Her mornings are like hell on earth. She wakes up as early as 4am to prepare breakfast for the entire family, wash utensils and milk the cows. She must also fetch water from a stream one kilometre away, oblivious of the dangers she is exposed to. These include being bitten by stray dogs and rape by men. She does all this while her siblings, mother and father enjoy their sweet dreams.

Her father had recently informed her mother that Elimu was ready for marriage and that he has been having a discussion with the richest man in the village who would marry her as the fifth wife and pay the prize of 20 heads of cattle and 15 goats. “My social status will also change as I will be counted as one of the rich families in this village,” he would quip. Meanwhile as the traditions required, Elimu had been undergoing coaching by her mother on how to make her man happy and raise a family.

At about seven in the morning, she is ready to take tea with others and rush to school, but not until she is reminded by her elder brother that she is just wasting time and money going to school and that soon she will be a mother.

...In June 2009, the Coastal Rural Support Programme (CRSP-K) initiated the Girls Forums Programme with the intention of addressing issues hindering access, attendance and retention of girls in schools. Organisations like Gender at Work provide other organisations with diagnosis and strategic planning to enable them to focus on gender-equality work, such as programming for young women at CRSP-K. Gender at Work helps organisations analyse their organisational culture, policies and leadership using participatory processes to generate ownership and collective energy for change...

Elimu’s journey to school is full of thoughts on how she will overcome this monstrous obstacle threatening to deny her the wonderful job of being an accomplished doctor. At school, she braces herself to confide her tribulations with her home-science teacher who had become concerned on her deteriorating performance in her subject and having low concentration in class.

Luckily, the teacher was a member of the Gender at Work team in the district. The teacher linked her to a legal institution that provides legal services to marginalised children and women. One evening her father came home with the rich man to give her away at the agreed price.

While busy preparing dinner for the family, Elimu was asked by her mother to stop cooking and start packing her clothes as her time to be married off had come. Noticing this, she pretended to go for a short call behind the kitchen and ran as fast as her legs could carry her to the teacher’s home. “Teacher help! My father wants to marry me off. I don’t want to stop going to school!” she cried as the teacher opened the door.

The teacher called the legal service provider who responded immediately. They came accompanied by police officers and the chief, and together they went to her home. On arrival they found her father shouting fiercely to her mother. On seeing her coming, he threatened to beat her up for going against his will. The suitor and the father were arrested and taken to the local police station where they were counselled and provided with information on child rights and education. Through this, the father realised that the education of a child has more long-term benefits than the price paid for marrying her off.

Elimu’s father apologised to her and promised to support her and nurture her dream. Elimu thanked her teacher and all for helping her to stay in school and see her dream come true. The father became a champion of child rights and gender empowerment in the location.

Although much has been accomplished towards gender equality, nowhere in the world are women and men truly equal in political, social or economic rights. We need to pay attention to, and invest in, girls as they will have an impact on the success of their communities, not to mention have a full and equal chance for rewarding lives.

Special thanks to Marilyn Wigglesworth for writing this month's topic.

References
1 - Cynthia B. Lloyd,ed., Growing Up Global; The Changing Transitions to Adulthood in Developing Countries (Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, 2005).
2 - Human Rights Watch, “Promises Broken: An Assessment of Children's Rights on the 10th Anniverary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child,” http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/crp/promises/education/html (December 1999).


Posted By webmaster on Wednesday 3rd March 2010 a 11:09pm

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