Take a stand for South Africa’s young girls

IN TWO days’ time, the world will mark the International Day of the Girl Child. According to figures released by the UN, “nearly 1 in 4 girls aged 15- 19 years are neither employed nor in education or training compared to 1 in 10 boys of the same age”.

The UN also predicts that by next year, up to 435 million women and girls will be living on less than $ 1.90 ( about R32) a day with the Covid19 pandemic having already placed 47 million of them worldwide in extreme poverty.

Over the past few years, the UN has also established the Development Goals, with Goal 15 calling for governments across the world to ensure that gender equality is effected.

Back home, there are a number of initiatives aimed at ensuring that the girl child is protected and that her rights are well taken care of.

The Take a Girl Child to Work Day launched in 2003 by Cell C has been one of the integral programmes that has sought to empower young girls who, today, have grown into phenomenal women because of the exposure they received. Individuals and corporates have banded together in a bid to ensure that young girls in the country do not miss school or their classes because of their periods. But then not everyone is fortunate. Many young girls in this country still live in squalor and face social ills that often deprive them of becoming a success. There are also many young girls who have been sexually assaulted or whose lives have been cut short because of the high rate of femicide.

It is also clear that South Africans, now more than ever, are concerned about human trafficking.

Then, if governments across the world have been encouraged to care for young girls, we ought to ask ourselves why in 2020 so many young girls are still left in the lurch and not helped to realise their full potential? Do we blame the government or do we, as a society, take collective responsibility for these social ills?

One of the many lessons learnt by people around the world with the emergence of Covid- 19 is that human beings are resilient and are willing to fight in order to overcome adversity.

We then have to fight to overcome the ills that face our young girls to ensure that they become strong women who will make a positive contribution in improving the world and the country they live in.