Educate girls for a better world

Today, October 11, marks the second International Day of the Girl Child.

The United Nations declared October 11, 2012, the first Day of the Girl to focus attention on girls' empowerment and the fulfillment of their human rights. This year's observation targets their education.

Some decades ago, aged eight or nine, I was given the choice of either doing well at school or being a housemaid. My mom took me out of school for three days to show me how it would compare. I was back at school after the second.

Although my dreams and ambitions of higher education were quashed by the Lebanon civil war, I have since been a strong supporter of education in general, but especially girls’ education. Having worked since age 12, I am also a firm believer in the woman’s role in the workplace and global economy.

Girls face discrimination and violence every day across the world. The International Day of the Girl Child – designated on December 19, 2011 in UN General Assembly Resolution 66/170 -- focuses attention on the need to address the challenges girls face and to promote girls’ empowerment and the fulfillment of their human rights.

The fulfillment of girls’ right to education is first and foremost an obligation and moral imperative.

There is also overwhelming evidence that girls’ education, especially at the secondary level, is a powerful transformative force for societies and girls themselves. It is the one consistent positive determinant of practically every desired development outcome, from reductions in mortality and fertility, to poverty reduction and equitable growth, to social norm change and democratization.

While there has been significant progress in improving girls’ access to education over the last two decades, many girls -- particularly the most marginalized -- continue to be deprived of this basic right, according to the United Nations.

Girls in many countries are still unable to attend school and complete their education due to safety-related, financial, institutional and cultural barriers. Even when girls are in school, perceived low returns from the poor quality of education, low aspirations, or household chores and other responsibilities keep them from attending school or from achieving adequate learning outcomes. The transformative potential for girls and societies promised through girls’ education is yet to be realized.

Recognizing the need for fresh and creative perspectives to propel girls’ education, the 2013 International Day of the Girl Child will address the importance of new technology as well as innovation in partnerships, policies, resource utilization, community mobilization, and most of all, the engagement of young people themselves.

Examples of possible steps include:

• Improved public and private means of transportation for girls to get to school -- from roads, buses, mopeds, bicycles to boats and canoes;
• Collaboration between school systems and the banking industry to facilitate secure and convenient pay delivery to female teachers and scholarship delivery to girls;
• Provision of science and technology courses targeted at girls in schools, universities and vocational education programs;
• Corporate mentorship programs to help girls acquire critical work and leadership skills and facilitate their transition from school to work;
• Revisions of school curricula to integrate positive messages on gender norms related to violence, child marriage, sexual and reproductive health, and male and female family roles;
• Deploying mobile technology for teaching and learning to reach girls, especially in remote areas.

Raise your hand

To mark International Day of the Girl Child today, a UK charity calls on nations to urgently prioritize quality education for girls as an essential factor in tackling crippling poverty.

Malala Yousafzai and actress Frida Pinto raise their hands

Plan UK, a global children’s charity founded 75 years ago, has a petition running to call on the United Nations to make girls’ education a priority in its new development agenda. The “Raise Your Hand” petition has reached over one million hands raised and is now aiming for four million.

Plan works with the world’s poorest children so they can move themselves from a life of poverty to a future with opportunity.

Globally, it is estimated 65 million girls are out of school, with one in five adolescent girls around denied an education by the daily realities of poverty, discrimination and violence. Disasters and emergencies can make these problems worse.

Supporting girls’ education is one of the single best investments a government can make to help end poverty and give hope to girls, otherwise denied their rights and aspirations, Plan says.

Plan UK is celebrating the worldwide support shown for the petition on the first anniversary of the shooting of Malala Yousafzai who has become a global spokesperson on the subject since she was shot by the Taliban in October 2012 for going to school.

Malala is just one of the many people around the globe to have raised her hand for our Because I Am A Girl campaign. The petition has now reached 1.5 million signatures and will be presented to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

Plan’s Because I am a Girl campaign aims to support four million girls to stay in education and fulfill their potential.

Plan’s campaign will be in London’s Trafalgar Square today from 10.30 a.m to unveil a giant “erasable” billboard to remind the world that every girl has a right to go to school.

Plan will also be “pinkifying” monuments around the world for the second year running on International Day of the Girl. Monuments including the Empire State Building will be glowing pink in support of girls’ education.

It believes girls hold the power to help break the cycle of poverty. With education, skills and the right support, girls can make choices over their own future and be a huge part of creating lasting change. An educated girl is...

• less likely to marry and to have children whilst she is still a child.
• more likely to be literate, healthy and survive into adulthood, as are her children.
• more likely to reinvest her income back into her family, community and country.

Child marriage

Last year’s Day focused on child marriage, which is a fundamental human rights violation and impacts all aspects of a girl’s life. Child marriage denies a girl of her childhood, disrupts her education, limits her opportunities, increases her risk to be a victim of violence and abuse and jeopardizes her health.

Globally, around one in three young women aged 20-24 years were first married before they reached age 18. One third of them entered into marriage before they turned 15. Child marriage results in early and unwanted pregnancies, posing life-threatening risks for girls. In developing countries, 90 per cent of births to adolescents aged 15-19 are to married girls, and pregnancy-related complications are the leading cause of death for girls in this age group.

Girls with low levels of schooling are more likely to be married early, and child marriage has been shown to virtually end a girl’s education. Conversely, girls with secondary schooling are up to six times less likely to marry as children, making education one of the best strategies for protecting girls and combating child marriage.

Preventing child marriage will protect girls’ rights and help reduce their risks of violence, early pregnancy, HIV infection, and maternal death and disability, including obstetric fistula. When girls are able to stay in school and avoid being married early, they can build a foundation for a better life for themselves and their families and participate in the progress of their nations.

Related posts:

Shame, as we fail the children of Syria -- August 23, 2013

March 8: Women's rights non-negotiable -- March 8, 2013

Malala: Education is the only solution -- July 13, 2013

The Power of We… for education -- Oct 15, 2012

How many more Child Brides must die? -- June 11, 2012

March 8: Education can win the future -- March 06, 2012

The Power of We… for education

It's Blog Action Day, the annual event when bloggers worldwide unite to write about one important global topic on the same day.

The theme for 2012 is, “The Power of We.”

Topics since the Day’s foundation in 2007 covered the environment, poverty, climate change, water and food. In 2010 and 2011, Mich Café participated in the latter two  (see links below).

Blog Action Day chose The Power of We because of the popularity of such subjects as community, equality, transparency, anti-corruption and freedom in a theme poll they ran via Facebook and Twitter. It also reflects the ever-growing movements of people working together for positive social change in the world.

The Power of We, or the lack thereof in many cases, keyed me up. I dragged my feet over the past few weeks in picking the angle to cover. But because I can only relate to equality and freedom of thought and expression through the power of education, that had to be my focus.

This choice was confirmed by two events over the past week: the dramatic shooting on October 9 of 14-year-old Pakistani student Malala Yousafzai for going to school and advocating for girls’ education; and the first International Day of the Girl Child on October 11.

Both events, through their reach and ripple, confirm that empowering girls means empowering societies as a whole. I would add that through proper education, boys would grow up to be equal partners on that journey.

Under Article 1 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”

Furthermore, Article 26 proclaims:

(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.

(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.

(3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.

Education is the only way we might see a fall in the number of child brides, the eventual abolition of Female Genital Mutilation, gender equality in the workplace and at home and hopefully racial and religious tolerance.

Malala Yousafzai

On October 9, a Taliban gunman shot Malala Yousafzai in the head and neck while she was returning home on a school bus. She remains unconscious and in critical condition.

I first heard about the attempted assassination, and indeed about Malala, from our Pakistani driver at work, who comes from that region. He rushed in to ask me to check on the Internet about the teenager’s condition. All of the community in Dubai was outraged and saddened by the attempt on the young girl’s life. And although a conservative, the Pakistani driver was full of admiration for what Malala stands for and what she is trying to achieve.

The Taliban gunman shot Malala as she heading home on the school bus after taking an exam in Pakistan’s Swat Valley. The masked gunman shouted, "Which one of you is Malala? Speak up, otherwise I will shoot you all." On her being identified, the gunman shot her twice, once in the head and once in the neck. Two other girls, Kainat Riaz and Shazia Ramzan, were also wounded. They are both stable and were able to provide details of the outrage.

Malala being airlifted to a military hospital after the shooting

Malala was airlifted to a military hospital in Peshawar where she was operated on after swelling developed in the left portion of her brain damaged by the bullet. After a three-hour operation, doctors successfully removed the bullet that had lodged in her shoulder near her spinal cord.

Today, Monday, Malala was airlifted with the help of the UAE to the UK, for further treatment.

Ehsanullah Ehsan, chief spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying the teenager "is the symbol of the infidels and obscenity," adding that if she survived, they would target her again.

Malala Yousafzai is a pupil from the town of Mingora in Pakistan’s Swat Valley. She is known for her education and women’s rights activism in the Valley, where the Taliban have banned girls from attending school.

Her father, Ziauddin Yousafzai, a poet, school owner and an educational activist himself, encouraged Malala in her education and pursuits. He runs a chain of schools known as the Khushal Public School, also named after a famous Pashtun poet, Khushal Khan Khattak.

In January 2009, she posted her first anonymous entry to the BBC Urdu blog that would later make her famous. She used the pseudonym "Gul Makai" -- meaning "corn flower" in Urdu -- so as not to be targeted by the Taliban.

The idea for the blog came from her father. She wrote about her life under the Taliban regime, their attempts to take control of the valley and her views on promoting education for girls. Later that year, the Pakistani military intervened, culminating in the expulsion of the Taliban from the Swat Valley.

In 2009, Malala began to appear on television and publicly encourage female education. After her BBC blogging identity was revealed, she was recognized by several organizations for her courage.

In December 2011, she was awarded Pakistan's National Youth Peace Prize. This January, the Government Girls Secondary School on Mission Road in Swat was renamed Malala Yousafzai Government Girls Secondary School in her honor.

Responding to concerns about his and his family’s safety, Malala's father, Ziauddin, said, "We wouldn't leave our country if my daughter survives or not. We have an ideology that advocates peace. The Taliban cannot stop all independent voices through the force of bullets."

Girl Child

As Malala Yousafzai fights for her life because of her strong belief in education, the world honored the “girl child” through an international day to raise awareness about enduring discrimination and to mobilize stronger action for human rights.

Education, particularly that of girls and women, aids progress and promotes development.

Worldwide, more people than ever before are benefiting from an education, according to UNESCO. It says over 1.5 billion children and youths are enrolled in kindergartens, primary and secondary schools and universities. From 1999 to 2008, an additional 52 million children enrolled in primary school. The number of children out of school was more than halved in South and West Asia. Enrolment ratios rose by almost one-third in sub-Saharan Africa.

Access to education is steadily expanding. Enrolment in higher education has risen sharply across developing countries, and innovative literacy and adult education programs are transforming the lives of the disadvantaged.

But, UNESCO notes, a number of obstacles, including poverty, still keep 67 million children of primary-school age out of school, 53 percent of whom are girls and almost 43 percent of whom are in sub-Saharan Africa.

Enrolment rates are slowing and being eroded by dropout, particularly in countries affected by armed conflict where over 40 percent of out-of-school children live.

Gender disparities continue to hamper progress in education. Around 17 percent of the world’s adults -- 793 million people, of whom two-thirds are women -- still lack basic literacy skills.

Millions struggle to learn in overcrowded classrooms, without textbooks or qualified teachers. An additional two million teachers will need to be recruited by 2015 to achieve universal primary education, more than half of them in sub-Saharan Africa.

Across the world, girls carry the heaviest burden of poverty, marginalization and violence. “Their rights are violated through early marriages, active discrimination and lack of opportunity. For far too many, being born a girl remains a lifelong sentence to inequality and injustice. This violates basic rights and holds back communities and societies from sustainable development.”

In her message on the occasion of International Day of the Girl Child, UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova said, “Education is the most powerful way to break this vicious circle. Education gives girls tools to shape the world according to their aspirations. It can delay early marriages and help with family planning. It provides strong medicine against disease and ill health. There is simply no better investment a society can make than in the rights of girls. The impact ripples far beyond individuals to take in the health and wellbeing of societies well into the future.”

UNESCO estimates that 32 million girls who should be are not attending primary school today. This must change. It is committed to ensuring every girl has access to quality education. “We must get girls into school and make sure they stay the course, from primary through secondary and onto higher education.”

Bokova adds: “The rights of girls are a key issue for social justice. Governments everywhere must do far more to protect them, to bolster girls’ capacities and to create conditions for the fulfillment of their aspirations. This requires stronger legalization and policies of protection and inclusion. It calls for targeted work to break stereotypes and promote new models.”

“The Power of We” is thus dedicated to promoting education.

“The Power of We” is dedicated to building for the future.

“The Power of We” is dedicated to Malala Yousafzai with my prayers for her recovery, so that she might continue her courageous battle for education and carry on being an example to her peers.

“The Power of We” is dedicated to the Girl Child to fulfill her potential, enrich her society and the economic growth of her nation.

“The Power of We” is also dedicated to the boys who will grow up to be men and walk hand in hand with their women partners.

Related posts:

Food for thought -- October 16, 2011

A bucket of water -- October 15, 2010