The Girl Effect

On behalf of the Girl Effect project, this post is written for all the girls throughout the world who have been kept down by men, women, nations and our world. 

Young girls, throughout our world, are crying for our help.  They’re begging for our help.  Their bodies are being sold, beaten and raped.  These girls have no say.  Young girls are being forced to marry men twice -- even three times -- their age.  Some girls are only eight years old when they are given to an older man as a wife.  He rapes this young child under the license of marriage.  Fathers give their precious little girls away for many reasons: to settle a debt, buy a cow, make amends for their own poor behavior, because they view girls as their property to do with as they please and on and on.

The treatment of girls as a commodity is happening in my world.  The ongoing abuse of young females—and, indeed, females of all ages-- is happening in your world.  The violence, degradation and abuse of females is destroying our world.  These abuses are happening today and are tragically effecting our tomorrow. 

Females are being abused, taken advantage of and controlled at an alarming rate in our world today.  This abuse is happening at the hands of men who are fathers, husbands, neighbors and leaders.  And until men and women step up and step in to take a stand against the abuses, they will continue to harm our world. 

The following tragedies are occurring across the globe every day:
•    Child marriage is happening in more than 50 developing countries around the world—today.  These girls are as young as eight years of age.
•    Child brides are often forbidden by their husbands to have an education.
•    There are 130 million out-of-school youth worldwide -- 75% of them are girls.
•    Seventy-five percent of 15- to 24-year-olds living with HIV in Africa are female, up from 62% in 2001.
•    Young girls continue to undergo the barbaric practice of female genital mutilation even after laws have been put into place to supposedly prohibit this atrocity.  Some people reading this may think this only happens in backward, under-developed countries—this is not so.  In July of 2010 it was reported that female genital mutilation would be inflicted on up to 2,000 British schoolgirls during the summer holidays http://tinyurl.com/2dvcsp3

Young girls throughout the world are being cheated.  They deserve to be safe, protected, educated, valued and cherished.  Instead, too many girls are mutilated, raped, abused, de-valued and refused an education.  These girls hope for more.  They wish for more.  They struggle for more.  They pray for more…and they deserve more.  We owe them more. 

When men and women unite to protect our girls, educate our girls and value our girls, we take a step toward world change that benefits each and every individual on the planet.  When men, cultures and even women themselves work to keep women and girls down, we keep our entire world down.  Educating our girls and teaching our boys a new way of being human that is compassionate, strong and safe is vital to creating a safer, more humane world.  We need to get out of our comfort zones and take a stand for all the girls throughout the world who cannot take a stand for themselves.  They don’t have a voice.  You have a voice.  We have voices.  Dare to take a stand.  Spread the word and help the girls throughout the world become educated, protected and safe.

Challenge:  Educate yourself about the Girl Effect.  Learn the facts, get involved and change the lives of girls:
•    “When a girl turns 12 and lives in poverty, her future is out of her hands” www.girleffect.org/video
•    Educate a girl…watch the ripple effect that reverberates across the world. http://tinyurl.com/cu4evb
•    One girl’s prayer: “I pray that the men who are very rude, who beat us, who use knives and guns to threaten us, that we will not have these men in our lives. I pray.” (National Geographic video on child marriage http://tinyurl.com/3hgjovp)