The Racheal Udenna Foundation, a Non Governmental Organisation, has called for collective action from well meaning individuals in addressing the challenges of the girl-child.
“The challenges of the girl child are enormous but can be effectively addressed if all hands are on deck.
“The International Day of the Girl Child brings to the fore the plights of the girl child and we all have a part to play in making sure that these challenges are surmounted in the shortest period of time,” she said.
Udenna noted that there were 1.1 billion girls across the world who could grow up to change the world if they were given access to secondary education, proper nutrition and family planning services.
“In fact, experts around the world believe secondary education for girls could be the most successful and cost effective investment against climate change.
“Researches have also shown that educated girls are less likely to contract HIV and when women are educated, they tend to cater more for the family with their well paid jobs,” she said.
She expressed optimism that if all girls attended school for 12 years, the world would be better for it.
She also said that if nations worked towards educating their children irrespective of the sex, the risk of war would be cut down by 50 per cent.
“In reality, though, over 130 million girls are out of school worldwide, with the exception to China, one in three girls are married in the developing world before reaching their 18th birthday,” she said.
This, Udenna said, meant that 47,700 girls were coerced into underaged marriages on a daily basis.
She noted that at least 500 million women and girls lacked a private place to change their sanitary protection, a fact she said led to reproductive tract infections and fewer girls in school.
She maintained that there was need to change the narrative to ensure a better society.
This year is the 25th International Day of the Girl Child since Oct. 11 was first set aside by the United Nations in her Beijing Declaration to recognise girls’ rights and the unique challenges the girl-child faces.
The day aims to shed light on the reasons the global society should address the challenges, biases, dangers, and injustices young girls deal with all over the world.
The day gives 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.
