Often times when you hear the likes of Malala and other advocates raise their voices in support of girl-child education and gender disparity to the hearing of anyone who cares to listen, it seems somewhat like an exaggerated plea for attention. A glance at some disturbing statistics might put some thoughts in the right perspective.
In Benin and Tanzania, women work 17.4 and 14 hours more than men per week, respectively
Data from 68 countries indicates that a woman's education is a key factor in determining a child's survival.
While progress has been made in reducing the gender gap in urban primary school enrolment, data from 42 countries shows that rural girls are twice as likely as urban girls to be out of school.
Each year, approximately 12 million girls under 18 will be married; that’s 32,877 each day, nearly 1 girl every 2 seconds (UNICEF).
UN International Day of Girls was established in 2012 through the effort of the Plan International and support from the Canadian government to increase awareness of issues faced by Girls around the world.
The 2018 International day of Girls themed With Her: A Skilled GirlForce, focuses on bringing together partners and stakeholders to advocate for, and draw attention and investments to, the most pressing needs and opportunities for girls to attain skills for employability.
Kaima Designs celebrates with all girls today as it encourages more girls to enrol and remain in school through the annual school uniform drive.