The UN declared the International Day of the Girl in 2010 in order to raise attention to the struggles girls go through. The day is wholly dedicated to shedding light on the injustices girls face, such as limited accesses to fundamental things that men are able to attain. Only 30% of all the girls in the world are enrolled in secondary school. The majority of girls do not have the opportunity to get an education solely because of their gender. In addition to education issues, The Day of the Girl also raises awareness of sexual abuse, prostitution, misogyny in the media, and many more.
“I believe that International Day of the Girl is important because we need this day to emphasize the challenges that young girls face all over the world,” said Ria Sawhney ’17. “It’s not right that gender can serve as a barrier to the crucial opportunities girls should have access to – such as education and reproductive health services.”
Throughout the Day, #GirlHero was trending. This hashtag encouraged girl power by spreading images and stories of girls who are inspire others on social media. Girls who had qualities like strength and compassion had their stories shared all over. Before the Day of the Girl occurred, Morgan van Kesteren ’17 sparked the discussion of what a hero is to everyone.
An example of the educational injustice girls face is shown through the story of Miatta, a 16-year-old Liberian girl who was stripped away from her education. Deceived into thinking she would attain a better education, she left home to live with her uncle. She was forced to sell snacks and food on the streets by her uncle, and eventually was kicked out by him for being persistent on attending school. After joining an empowerment group, she became confident and is now attending school and reaching for her dream of becoming a teacher one day. This story relates to use because we attend an all girls school and have the privilege of attaining an exceptional education, so it’s important to reflect on that privilege and understand why the Day of the Girl is important.
“We take our education for granted a lot,” said Marlene Almanzar ‘18. “We don’t really process the fact that there are millions of girls in different countries restricted from attending school because of their gender and it’s because it doesn’t happen around us. We don’t see it happening here, but it’s a major problem.”
Hewitt has been tied to the Girl Up campaign for a couple years now. Girl Up provides us with many opportunities. For example, the 7th, 8th, and 9th graders met the First Lady a few weeks ago to listen to her discussion about the importance of providing girls an education. On October 24th, the Student Service Board held it’s annual Service Day, which included a Jump-a-thon. This Jump-a-Thon is a blue and white event, in which girls jump for a certain amount of time in order to gain points for their respective team. Each point counted as one dollar, and the winning team’s total amount of $951 was donated to Girl Up.
