All I ever wanted to be when I was a little girl was to grow up and become a wife and a mother. I didn't really aspire to be or do anything else, or anything more than that. Thankfully I had the luxury of growing up in a country where a girl and woman were free and able to explore and enjoy the many choices and opportunities that were and still are available to women. This is so not the truth and the reality for many, many more girls in the world.
In many countries, girls face overwhelming odds dictated to them by the societies and cultures that they are born into from the very moment that they come into the world. In many countries, even in these modern days . . . simply being born a female is the biggest handicap that a person can have . . . they are throwaways . . . meaningless . . . worthless and of no value to the families and cultures they are born into.
One in three girls in our world are denied something as simple as a basic education, never mind further education . . . held back by the daily realities of poverty, discrimination and violence which exist in their realities. Forced into marriages not of their choosing, subjected to violence and entrapment . . . denied the very education and schooling which would be totally life changing and life transforming, unable to realize their full potential and worth.
With education and the right support girls can choose their own futures and be a force for change in their countries and in the world. Right now, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is deciding the development priorities for the next generation. It may already be too late for older women . . . but the promise of tomorrow lies in the growth and development of these precious young girls of today.
Thursday the 11th of October, 2012 is the very first ever "International Day of the Girl." A special day which Plan UK has successfully lobbied for. A day to raise the awareness of people everywhere to the plight of many, many young girls in the world today. A chance for each of us who have been so wonderfully blessed to have the privilege of money, choices and education to make a difference in the lives of those girls and women who have not. This is the day for the rest of the world to "RAISE YOUR HAND" and sign the petition to the UN Secretary General to make education for girls a priority!
Plan UK is a Global children's charity which works with the world's poorest children so they can move themselves from a life of poverty to a future filled with opportunities and possibility. with education, skills and support, girls can choose their own future and be a force for change. Plan’s 75 years of experience has shown us that educated girls are likely to be healthier, to earn more, and to marry and have children later. An educated girl is more likely to reinvest her knowledge and income into her family and community.
Won't you join the cause and sign the petition today? Tell your friends and family about this great cause?
Never underestimate your power as an educated and privileged woman of this modern age to make a difference in the lives of so many who are not so lucky as we are. Together we have the power and the means to help prevent those girls less fortunate than ourselves from being forgotten. With education and the right support, these girls can choose their own futures and be a force for change in OUR world.
Like their Facebook Page, and join in on the International Movement to make a difference in someone else's life today. Hold up your hands, sign the petition and say NO MORE!!! There are also a lot of Social Media buttons and platforms available that you can upload and use to promote this cause. What are we here for . . . if not to make a difference.
I am going to try to make a difference today, for a better tomorrow . . . won't you?
Done and Done. Here's hooping for it's success!!
ReplyDeleteI'm like you- all I wanted when I was little was to continue "playing house" indefinitely : )
ReplyDeleteI hadn't heard of "Day of the Girl" until your blog.
Done. Now I shall send the link on to others. Thank you for raising this; I hadn't known about October 11th.
ReplyDeleteWith all due respect, the UN's scam is to feign concern for girls in countries that oppress them. The agenda of the rich autocrats of the UN is, to bleed more money out of western countries, using the rationale that poor children, including girls in the UK, the US, Canada, France, etc.. are "rich" by comparison, so their rights, their futures, the funds that would provide them with food, housing, education, health care, must be given to the rich despots in charge of the "poor" countries that oppress girls and women. The money will be used to buy guns, weapons, to fund forced female genital mutilation, as is being done with foreign aid to Egypt. Please don't be hoodwinked.
ReplyDeleteWith all due respect Mary, my husband and I have sponsored children in two different countries for quite a number of years now and they have both been educated and lives of whole families have been changed. I do not agree with your statement and the frequent letters AND photographs I have gotten from these children have told me different that what you have implied here. When I saw what our Meager monetary gifts have given and the difference they have made in these lives I was uplifted and encouraged. Yes, we do have poor children in our Western Countries, but we also have great opportunity and means. Poverty is no excuse here in the Western World for a lack of education. To use this post as a sounding board for your warped views is in very poor taste.
ReplyDeleteThis post is really touched and lovely Marie!x
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