A female gender development group under the aegis of Nurture Women and Girl Child Initiative (NWAGCI), has urged the three tiers of Government as well as stakeholders to invest in the girl child now for a prosperous future.
The Executive Director of NWAGCI, Mrs. Doris Eyong Kokoma who made the call at the commemoration of the 2023 International Day of the Girl Child in Abuja, explained that the girl child has the potential to make a nation great.
She reiterated that if given the conducive learning environment and access to quality education, the girl child would excel and add value to the society.
“Girls have a right to a safe, knowledgeable and healthy life throughout their entire life, not only during their formative years”, she stressed.
According to her, “As we commemorate this day Nurture Women and Child Initiative is calling on government at all levels and relevant stakeholders in the education sector to make basic education compulsory and accessible for the girl child, domesticate the Child Rights Act in States that are yet to do so and provide stiffer punitive measures for human right violators especially for sexual and gender based violence. Let’s close the gender gap”.
She noted that the International Day of the Girl Child therefore focuses attention on the need to address the challenges girls face and to promote girls’ empowerment and the fulfillment of their human rights.
The human rights advocate further stated that the International Day of the Girl Child is commemorated every October 11th to recognize girls’ rights and the unique challenges girls face around the world.
United Nations General Assembly on December 19, 2011, adopted Resolution 66/170 to declare the observance of this day and since the inaugural International Day of the Girl Child was observed years ago, the world has been recognizing and celebrating the numerous achievements of women and girls in all endeavors of life.
Kokoma enumerated that her organization Nurture Women and Girl Child Initiative (NWAGCI) is passionate about issues relating to women, girls and has carried out several skill acquisition training as well as offered take off grants for women to eradicate poverty and be self-reliant, assisted abandoned girls with tuition and exam registration to eradicate illiteracy to the barest minimum, among other things.
She cited that UNESCO data shows that there are 50 million more children in school today than there was when the global education goal (SDG 4), was set in 2015.
She however, regretted that girls are still facing challenges like: stereotyping, gender and sexually based violence, early marriages, , child labor, child abandonment etc.
She said that UN international days therefore offers a powerful advocacy tool to educate the public on issues of concern, to mobilize political will and resources to address global problems and to celebrate and reinforce achievements of humanity.
The theme for this year “Invest in Girls Rights: Our Leadership, Our Well-Being” underscores the need to shift our attention to the possibility of having women and girls who can lead us to a prosperous future, according to the UN Secretary-General António Guterres.
“Women and girls can lead us to a fairer future…let us amplify girls’ voices, and recommit to working together to build a world where every girl can lead and thrive.”
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