I come from Nigeria - a country in Africa - a continent where being a GIRL means you can’t chase your ambitions to the fullest, where it has been written that chores is a female thing so men can’t be involved, where being ABUSED is your own fault; because there are justifiable reasons why men maltreat women and of course the women cause it, a country where you can’t be opinionated and outspoken because that's BEING RUDE, where at 15 you can’t make decisions for yourself and have to give up some of your dreams, where it is not normal for you to want power because power is for the male. There are people out there teaching girls how to be good and spotless but who is teaching the boys how to be responsible? How to be good and spotless also? Girls are equal members of the society, sources of hope for the future and when girls do better, the whole world does better!

 

I am very much against gender inequality. I believe that a girl/woman should be allowed to become whatever they want to. I am inspired by all the strong and courageous girls and women in the world that are changing all the embedded values. I admire them, for showing the world that girls can be leaders and many more things they want to be. I am 16 and a strong woman in the making.

 

Education should not be limited to a specific gender and as an appointed Global Youth Ambassador for A World at School, I want to call attention to the 57 million children around the world who are currently being denied their human right to an education. Every child has a right to education. Yet, around the world 57 million children remain out of primary school. More than half of these children – 31 million – are girls. There are 250 million children in school but not learning. When world leaders adopted the Millennium Development Goal 2, they made a commitment that by 2015 every child would be able to complete primary school. At the current rate of progress, however, it will be 2086 before the last girl will complete primary school. This is unacceptable. We must achieve universal primary education. To do so, we must eliminate the largest barriers that keep millions of children out of school. It has been shown that we could lift over 170 million people out of poverty simply by teaching every child in low-income countries basic reading skills. So why are we not making this a reality?

 

Unless we revert current trends, we will not even achieve universal primary education before 2086. I strongly believe that now is the time for every individual no matter your status in society to stand up and raise our voices because its this little things in life that mean the most, that can help the most.

 

So, now is the time to make that change we've all been talking and hearing about.

 

 

Jennifer Kofoworola Onibode.

Global Youth Ambassador,

A World At School,

Nigeria.