Girl Child, Hardest Hit.

In Africa, young girls are hardest hit from the squalor of poverty. They bear the brunch of all human troubles from infant hood, more especially if they lose their biological mother at a very tender age.

Leaving them disillusioned, disenfranchised which often leads them to the pits of hell; uneducated, married off young sometimes into polygamous marriages, they are sexually abused, contract HIV, they experience involuntary genital mutilation, inaccessibility to sanitary ware, economically dis empowered, exposure to early child pregnancies making them the perfect candidates for obstetric fistula disease in the absence of proper medical care, all this as if to confirm the prophetic adage, hewers of wood and drawers of water. In short they are condemned to perpetual bondage.

Are we doing enough to banish these practices as Africans, do we just speak when we know there are monetary benefits to be made from advocacy causes for girls?

I know of one or two distinguished fellow country women living in the diaspora, they head foundations which are helping some cause. They tweet about attending workshops and seminars, meeting distinguished persons, attending lavish functions, the list is endless. Without taking anything away from them I applaud them, for it is grace that is upon them, so who am I to condemn them.

But, I have a problem, when I ask them what they are doing to help that girl back home who is in dire need of school fees, access to sanitary wear, a decent school shoe I never get any response, surely something is amiss. Maybe it is a case of not letting the left hand know what the right hand is doing.

We can do better to bring hope.

We cannot eradicate inequality, but we certainly can make a difference. It is a 

fight of conscious.

It takes passion; until you have experienced the face of poverty you will never fight it to the full. You will continuously echo pronouncement without actualizing your policies. Our comfort zones will never deliver.

Not only should we push for policies that benefit the girl child, the women should drive the agenda.

Can we as African women on an individual level begin to think beyond educating our biological children and relatives only? We all can make small sacrifices to better the lives of the girls in need. It takes just one small step.

As for me I am entering a new phase of my life, my two daughters will be completing their undergraduate studies. I have single-handedly educated them. I made sacrifices, denying my own education, it has been hard and a learning experience.

The journey continues, my children understand the life of constant battle to attain education, I have raised them to know that education without humility is miseducation, education with selfishness cannot change the world. We are very resolved on this.

As they proceed in their next course of development, they will continue on this path of thought to help/support a girl child in need how they do this is of their own accord.

God willingly this time next year, I hope to blog my experiences of uplifting a girl child or girls   welfare for the betterment of their livelihood. I can only count on prayers and good will to be used as an instrument of change, it is a passion to be fulfilled soon and very soon for the common good.