Recently at our
Creative Women of the World (CWOW) staff meeting we challenged ourselves to
each come up with our own personal mission statement to present to the
group. I mulled over several ways to
approach this and this is where I finally settled…
“I will live as
though I have a thousand daughters, even though I have none, because every girl
is my daughter and when she sees me, or engages with me, she's looking to me
for how to live. So I will live, I will smile, I will laugh, I will speak, and
I will pray as though her heart and soul depend on it.”
I had posted this as
my status on facebook recently because for as long as I can remember, a piece
of my heart has been dedicated to encouraging and cultivating self-esteem in
girls. I’ve always considered myself
lucky. Not just lucky, but blessed. I grew up with a mother whom I never heard
say a negative thing about herself. I’ve
always credited that to part of the reason why I have good self-esteem. I don’t think we realize the impact it has on
young girls for them to hear us put ourselves down. I personally challenge myself to have an
awareness of how I carry myself, treat myself, and talk about myself in the presence
of others. You never know what tiny
impressionable ears are listening…
Here are three solid reasons why we want you to invest your time, energy and capital in an adolescent girl…
1. Girls are agents of
change
They play a crucial role in solving the most persistent
development problems facing the world today. By investing in their economic
potential through education and by delaying child marriage and teen pregnancy,
issues such as HIV and Aids can be resolved and the cycle of poverty can be
broken. To learn how a girl's success is the world's success, watch the girl
effect film.
2. People assume girls
are being reached
They're not. The reality is that children's
programs focus on 0-5 year-olds, youth programs tend to focus on males and
older groups, and women's programs don't typically capture adolescent girls.
Programs that do reach girls rarely address the ones most at risk. To break the
cycle of intergenerational poverty, programs must be designed for, and measure
the impact on, girls.
3. The cost of excluding
girls is high
In India, adolescent pregnancy results in
nearly $10 billion in lost potential income. In Uganda, 85% of girls leave
school early, resulting in $10 billion in lost potential earnings. By delaying
child marriage and early birth for one million girls, Bangladesh could
potentially add $69 billion to the national income over these girls' lifetimes.
I encourage you to
check out the website www.girleffect.org to learn about how we can impact our world for and through our
girls. It’s one of my favorite
resources. As I continue to read and
learn about the oppression and violence against women around the world,
especially in human trafficking situations, it stirs me. It’s tremendously hard to read graphic
descriptions of what is happening to our sisters. It makes me almost sick sometimes. It is fearful and discouraging. But then I hear the rumble…it’s off in the
distance, like a low growl, but I hear it.
It’s the sound of strength and empowerment. And the more I read and learn, the more I
hear and see women and girls all over the world fighting for change, and
equality, and peace, and education, and safety, the louder that rumble
gets…until it’s a roar loo loud to ignore.
I can’t ignore that I was wired with a fire inside me to do what I can,
however small, for our mothers, and grandmothers. For our sisters and our best friends. And for our little girls.
I hope I have a
daughter someday. I hope that if I do, I
can watch her grow strong, and smart, and confident, and creative. I hope that
she challenges me to make this the best world it can be for her. I hope that I will live and laugh and speak
and pray in a way that encourages and empowers her. But for now I
will live as though I have a thousand daughters, even though I have none,
because every girl is my daughter and when she sees me, or engages with me,
she's looking to me for how to live. Thank you for that reminder, child. I will do my best to make you proud.
*This blog post is dedicated to my beautiful
sister-in-law, Anna, who is a shining example of a mother and sister and
friend.
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