We must continue to fight for the rights of girls around the world. A 10-year-old girl born into a wealthy family has all the possibilities that life can offer her, but a girl of the same age living in a country in difficulty will find a very different future.
Don't store avocado like this: it's dangerous
We must continue to fight for the rights of girls around the world. A 10 year old girl born into a wealthy family, she has all the possibilities that life can offer her, but a girl of the same age living in a country in difficulty will find a very different future.
Thousands of girls in the world at 10 are not about to experience the adolescence we would expect. They do not have the opportunity to attend school, they have to work to give financial support to the family, they have to take care of their siblings as if they were mothers themselves. And all this in the most fortunate cases.
Because when their life gets really tough, they risk becoming child brides or to be sold as slaves by families who no longer have the means to support them. We think of child brides forced to become the wives of old men who will then find themselves becoming maids, if not worse.
Yet there is a different way. The Sustainable Development Goals, as Terres Des Hommes points out, envisage a better future for all the girls in the world who find themselves in difficulty or in danger.
Here 10 reasons to defend the rights of girls, according to the UNFPA.
Index
Millions of girls live in poverty
There are 125 million 10-year-old girls who live in poverty around the world and most of them are in developing countries. 1 in 5 live in a nation defined by the UN as underdeveloped.
Read also: CHILDREN BRIDES IN NEPAL: A DRAMA THAT NEVER ENDS
Discrimination and inequality
Discrimination e inequality unfortunately they are still widespread in the places where the poorest girls in the world live, who encounter enormous difficulties in being able to attend school and in being able to access higher and adequate education.
Read also: INTERNATIONAL GIRLS DAY: FREE TO LIVE, LEARN AND PLAY EVERYWHERE
Child labor
10% of girls between the ages of 5 and 14 they work indoors for more than 28 hours a week. In addition, 75% of small workers are not paid, they work in family shops or in the fields (against 64% of males).
Read also: CHILD LABOR: IT IS PROHIBITED IN BRAZIL BUT CHILDREN ARE MORE EXPLOITED (VIDEO)
Child brides
Girls under the age of 18 forced to marry there are more than 47 thousand every day in the world. After being forced to marry, they are pressured into giving birth to children too early for their age, putting their own health at serious risk.
Read also: THE DRAMA OF CHILD BRIDES WITHOUT RIGHTS
Violence and abuse
Violence and abuse risk becoming the order of the day for girls and girls who find themselves in a context based on this type of behavior towards them with a total lack of rights and respect. Because of the violence and abuse suffered a girl dies every 10 minutes.
AIDS
Aid it is the leading cause of mortality among girls between the ages of 10 and 19 with HIV infections which are a consequence of the violence suffered by the partner and the rape, unfortunately very frequent.
Suicide
Suicide it is the second leading cause of death among teenage girls.
School
Still you fail to understand that the right to education for girls and for girls it is fundamental, however it is considered a bad investment twhile 16 million girls between 6 and 11 have never sat at school, twice as many as their male peers.
Work
Every extra year a girl spends at school translates to a better salary in subsequent years. Several researches have shown that educating girls offers a better annual return (+ 11,7%) than boys (+ 9,6%).
Rights of girls
An educated girl, in good health and aware of her rights has a better chance of postpone marriage and pregnancy, has a better chance of finding a better job, and her children will be healthier and better educated. With great benefits for his community and for his entire country.
Marta Albè
