International Day Of The Girl has been recognized worldwide since October 11, 2012.
This initial celebration came nearly a year after the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution 66/170—an agreement which enabled the UN General Assembly to declare October 11 International Day Of The Girl Child.
Why was International Day of The Girl created?
International Day Of The Girl was created to recognize girls’ rights and the unique challenges girls face all over the world. The day aims to shed light on all the reasons why the global society, need to address the challenges, biases, dangers, and injustices young girls deal with all over the world—with particular focus on parts of the globe where child marriage is widely practiced, such as Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, the Middle East, and North Africa.
International Day Of The Girl is meant to promote the empowerment of young girls everywhere, while also advocating for the attainment of their basic human rights, like education and bodily autonomy.
Why is International Day of the Girl Important?
There are 1.1 billion girls alive today who could grow up to change the world if they’re simply given access to things like secondary education, proper nutrition, and family planning services.
In fact, experts globally believe secondary education for girls could be the most successful and cost-effective investment against climate change.
Research shows that educated girls are less likely to contract HIV, and when women are educated, there ends up being more jobs for everyone. According to the UNICEF Nigeria, if all girls attended school for 12 years, low and middle income countries could add $92 billion to their economies annually. Plus, when nations make sure to educate all of their children instead of just the boys, they cut their risk of war by 50 percent.
In reality, though, over 130 million girls are out of school worldwide. With the exception of China, one in three girls is married in the developing world before reaching their 18th birthday—which means 47,700 girls are coerced into underage marriages on a daily basis.
At least 500 million women and girls lack a private place to change their sanitary protection—a fact which leads to reproductive tract infections and fewer girls in school.
How does The International Day of the Girlchild achieves change?
The fundamental aim of The International Day of the Girl Child is to raise awareness of the challenges that girls in developing countries face via social media.
Each year achieves different things depending on the theme.
This year, under the theme, “My voice, our equal future”, it emphasizes the need to seize the opportunity to reimagine a better world inspired by adolescent girls – energized and recognized, counted and invested in.
As adolescent girls worldwide assert their power as change-makers, International Day of the Girl 2020 will focus on their demands 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.
How can I help?
At an individual level, getting involved largely revolves around spreading awareness, something the UN encourages people to do via social media under the hashtag #DayOfTheGirl.
There are also a number of small organizations taking on the challenges outlined by the UN which you can get involved with, including #TeamcobyNigeria
Teamcoby-Nigeria for instance and a number of excellent organizations are working to give girls everywhere the safe, healthy, and educated lives that they deserve.
TeamcobyNigeria welcomes sustainable sponsorship and partnership from corporate and charitable organizations with focus on supporting girl child education, health and well-being or water, sanitation and hygiene related projects to support vulnerable population in low income communities across Nigeria for free distribution of its solution value brand Eco Reusable pad packs in wholesale quantities to girls from vulnerable and low income communities.
TeamcobyNigeria can also be a CSR implementation partner and associates with corporate for their CSR initiatives especially in the area of sanitation & hygiene, community mobilization, outreach & stakeholder engagement, livelihood support/women empowerment.
Oluwasegun Adeniyi is a Project Champion, Community mobiliser, Development, Sustainability, CSR, and #SDG Advocate, a Social and Behavioural Change Communication (SBCC) enthusiast.
A 2020 Global Ambassador of the World Literacy Foundation and Volunteers with Teamcoby-Nigeria, and he is passionate about education and community development issues.
Email: oluwasegunadeniyi9@gmail.com