On the International Day of the Girl Child, we need to both celebrate the contributions and the potential of girls around the world. And at the same time be aware that still in many places they are more vulnerable. Because their contributions are disregarded, they are not given an opportunity to reach their potential, and all their strength is required for just staying alive.
Girls make enormous contributions to their families and their communities. They often take on significant parts of household work, work on the family farm or in the family business. They are often actively involved in raising their younger siblings -either a the head of a child-headed household, or alongside their mother -, and they help out vulnerable members of their community. In places where they are given the opportunity to go to school, they regularly outperform their male classmates, but also offer them assistance.
The interesting thing is that girls often contribute more in societies where they are valued less. This should not be taken as advocacy for valuing girls less, but it is striking. The reason why this is true, is sad.
In societies where girls are valued less, they usually are not given the opportunity to have an education and they are kept in the home and made to work – to work hard and without reward. So their productive output is higher than that of girls who are more valued. However, their outlook is bleak, their life expectancy is short and because they are not allowed to develop to their full potential, taken over their whole life-span, their positive impact on their family and community is much lower than it could have been.
Girls who are valued more, are allowed to have an education, to develop themselves through learning and play. These girls tend to have a far greater chance of helping their families escape poverty, of helping their children develop further and of making significant contributions to their societies, in economic, developmental and humanitarian senses. It is generally acknowledged that educating girls is one of the most effective ways of helping a country develop away from devastating circumstances.
The reason why I am including a blog about the attitudes towards girls on a website about alternative care, is that these things are linked very closely, in a variety of ways.
In places where the girl child is undervalued, she is more likely to be abandoned and to end up in an institution, or another form of alternative care. In places where young girls are forced to marry, to become soldiers, or are trafficked, support services and alternative care need to be set up to help the girls when they have been rescued or been able to escape from those circumstances.
While on the other hand, when girls are enabled to have an education, they are empowered to take care of their children. These women and those children are less likely to require social support to be able to cope and stay together. So the knife cuts both ways.
A society that does not respect, value and protect their girls, and does not give them the opportunity to reach their potential, is simply throwing away one of their most valuable assets. So, let’s come together and celebrate the girl child in order to allow her to help lift us up.
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