INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE GIRL CHILD 2020
Theme: My Voice, Our Equal Future
The International Day of the Girl Child is an annual event held globally every October 11th to celebrate the life and struggles of the Girl Child and to bring about a positive change in the mindsets of people around the world about the Girl Child.
The Girl Child has for so many decades been overlooked in the spectrum of society. In some homes and cultures, they are not allowed to reach the same educational levels as their male counterparts. A lot of people wrongly believe that girls are probably not as intelligent or mentally/physically strong as their male counterparts, leading to all forms of discrimination against the female gender in the workplace, socio-political space, educational sector, and the general society at large. This line of thought needs to change.
So many successful women today like Folorunso Alakija, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, Mo Abudu, Helen Johnson Sirleaf, Hilary Clinton, Yemi Alade, Serena Williams amongst others have shown that if given the chance, the Girl Child can successfully reach the zenith of her career and industry as well as to attain the highest level of education possible, hence the importance of celebrating the International Day of the Girl Child is to raise awareness of the opportunities made available to the Girl Child.
This year 2020, the Children Youth and Women Empowerment Initiative, ChiYoWo joined the rest of the world to mark this important day (themed My Voice Our Equal future) by holding a Girl-Child talk session on the 12th of October 2020 with female students of two schools, Dadeyo High School, Abule Egba and TonyBee Nursery& Primary School, Alagbado, both in Lagos, Nigeria.
The focus of the message passed was to:
* Campaign against gender-based bias and violence
* Encourage parents/guardians to allow the girl child to attain the highest level of education
* Encourage the girl child to acquire skills towards the futures they choose
* Encourage young girls to Lead as a generation of activists accelerating social change
After the talk session, some of the girls gave a one-minute interview and they shared their ambitions, reflected on their lives as girls, and talked about how the Girl Child should be taken care of at all times.
ChiYoWo also held a one-week Instagram campaign #ChiYoWoGirlsRock which started from 12th October to 18th October 2020 to raise awareness about the life and importance of the Girl Child. People were asked to make 20 seconds video of themselves talking positively about the girl child and sending a word of encouragement to every girl in the world. The videos were posted each day from the 15th of October to the 18th of October on the official Instagram handle of the ChiYoWo Empowerment Initiative, @chiyowoini.
