International Day of the Girl Child 2017

October 11th is the International Day of the Girl Child, a day to recognize girl's rights and the unique challenges girls face around the world. This year's theme is "The Power of the Adolescent Girl: Vision for 2030" and it is an opportunity for us to pay attention to the health and well-being of the world's adolescent girls, including their sexual and reproductive health and call powerfully for a stronger focus on adolescent girls across the world.

   Somewhere in the world, an adolescent girl dies as a result of violence, suffer severe disadvantages, discrimination and exclusion, merely for being young and being female. We should enable them to avoid child marriage and unwanted pregnancy, protect against HIV transmission, stay safe from FGM(female genital mutilation) and acquire the education and skills they need to realize their potential. The girl child should not be considered second-class citizen who does not have the right to basic freedom and privileges that men enjoy. 

   Their roles are primarily fixed as domestic help, tools for the pleasure of their men and instruments for procreation. We should change the mindset of the people to not just see the Girl Child as being fragile, weak and dependent. We need to train the girls or give them free access to comprehensive sexuality education. Every girl child deserves to know about sex education, provide them with comprehensive health services, including contraceptive services. They also need to be kept in school.

  We should have a world in which girls have no limits on their aspiration for the future, no matter where they come from. A world where adolescent girls have access to sex education and health services which will allow them to make the right choices for a healthy lifestyle. A world where every girl child can stand to fight for their rights, be educated so they can know about sexually transmitted diseases, be free from violence, unwanted pregnancy.

Thousands of Nigerian young and under-aged girls are being trafficked on daily basis across our borders for sexual exploitation and hard labour and/or forced or convinced into irregular migration. Our girls are being trafficked from their homes to unknown destinations every day for sexual exploitation and for child labour. Reported and unreported cases of molestation of girls are on the increase daily. 

  Girls are forced into early marriages and when they decide to leave their children become vulnerable and at risk because their mothers lack education, exposure and are financially incapable. 

  We in WOCON stand against these gruesome activities and speak for the dignity of girls everywhere.

  Only when we start realizing this fact, that a girl is also as much of a human as a boy, with her own feelings and aspirations, then we will be able to end this long struggle for the girl child. If the girls are given the right chances to nurture their skills and talent, then the can excel in different areas of life.

  Quote- Your gender should not determine whether you get an education.