International Day of the Girl

Today (Tuesday 11 October 2016), is International Day of the Girl.  So why is there a need to raise awareness across the globe of the needs of girls?

Girls between 5 and 14 years old spend 40 per cent more time, or 160 million more hours a day, on unpaid household chores and collecting water and firewood compared to boys their age, according to a research undertaken by UNICEF.  The report - Harnessing the Power of Data for Girls: Taking stock and looking ahead to 2030 - includes the first global estimates on the time girls spend doing household chores such as cooking, cleaning, caring for family members and collecting water and firewood.
 
The report’s findings echo so much I what I have seen and learnt during my time in Nebbi.  It is women and young girls who I see every day walking up and down the road into Nebbi itself carrying heavy loads – basins of washing, baskets of tomatoes, onions, maize, etc., sacks of charcoal, dried cassava or cassava flour, bundles of fire wood, water jerry cans, etc. – on their heads.  It is rare to see boys carrying these loads.  I have only seen one women riding (i.e. not a pillion passenger) a motorbike and I can’t even start to guess at how many motorcycles I have seen go passed me. 

Whenever I have passed a water source (clean or unclean), it has been the women and girls operating the pump and filling the jerry cans before lifting them onto their heads for the long walk home. 

It has also been very apparent, when visiting schools, that fewer girls are in education than boys.  If a family is struggling to pay school fees, the money available will be spent on the boys as the culture does not value girls equally to boys. 

Yesterday, I visited St. Maria Goretti Secondary School on the outskirts of Nebbi.  The school is an all girls' boarding school which opened last year.  The school is working hard to try and improve school attendance for girls (which is currently as low as around 65 girls per 100 boys).  The provision of boarding facilities seeks to enable the girls to focus on their studies as they will not be diverted to other household chores.  It is also means that absentee rates will be less as the girls won't be kept home when they are required to care for the younger siblings or work on the family's land.



The pupils of St. Maria Goretti Secondary School