THE GIRL CHILD
Abena Nyarkoa (Abbie). PhD
Promoting an Equitable Future through Education, Trade & Advocacy. Empowering Minds: Inspiring Possibilities. Researcher | Lecturer | Coach.
Human Rights is a right for all, including the Girl Child. We must intensify our efforts to protect the girl child from harmful cultural practices like Female Genital Mutilations (FGM), Forced and Early Marriages, Sexual Exploitations and Gender Disparities. We must seek to promote a Safe and Healthy Environment for the Holistic Development of the girl child to learn and excel, and to break free from societal expectations and conformities.
A lot of cultures in most parts of the world perceive the girl child as subservient in society. The fibre of inequality and discrimination are often woven in the life of the girl child from birth until adulthood. She is usually programmed from birth to think and believe that her place as a woman on this earth is simply to become a wife and a mother.
We must all, collectively, in our own small ways endeavour to eradicate this ideology of injustice: this mental slavery, this emotional abuse, and the mindset of inferiority and inadequacy. Education can be the great equalizer if the girl child is given an equal opportunity as her male counterparts. We must rise up through education, advocacy, public forums, community events and the media to change the status quo of this unjust practice.
The girl child must be made to have self-believe and self-worth. The girl child must be encouraged and motivated to break through gender disparities. They must believe in themselves that they can achieve and become whatever they dream to become. They must believe that they can be the next Oprah Winfrey or the Williams sisters. The girl child must not lower her standard just because her male counterparts are refusing to raise theirs.
The girl child must be encouraged to develop wings and soar to greater heights.
The simple fact that a child is born as a female shouldn’t put her at a disadvantage or limit her potentials. J. E. K. Aggrey highlighted the importance of girl’s education when he summarised this beautifully…“If you educate a man you simply educate an individual, but if you educate a woman, you educate a whole nation".