International Day of the Girl Child: 2023 Theme: Invest in Girls' Rights: Our Leadership, Our Well-being | The Big Stories - video Dailymotion

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00:00 Welcome back on the AM show. It gives me joy when I have to talk about matters

00:04 like this one and today we celebrate on the back of that December 19 2011 United

00:10 Nations General Assembly resolution 66 stroke 170 declaring today October the

00:16 11th the International Day of the Girl Child to recognize girls rights and the

00:22 unique challenges girls face around the world. Personally I've had to interact

00:26 with many young people sometimes it is sanitary pads they need sometimes it is

00:31 the taxes on them sometimes it is circumstances that don't allow them to

00:35 go to school like they would want. The challenges are many currently with what

00:39 is going on between Israel and Palestine young girls are affected so as we

00:43 celebrate a day like this we reflect on myriad matters affecting young girls

00:49 across the world. Well joining us for a conversation in the studio this morning

00:53 we have two fantastic young ladies I'll be introducing them to you shortly and

00:57 they are with Plan International and they are making it happen as well as as

01:02 far as young girls are concerned. So joining us we have Mary Kudoto she's a

01:07 peer educator. Good morning Mary. Good morning. Put it there.

01:11 I hope you're going to be excited. We also have Linda Akamensa she's a

01:18 youth and girls advocate. I can't give her a fist bump and not give you a smile.

01:22 There you go. How are you guys? Fine thank you. You're not sounding it you're not

01:27 sounding excited. It's National Day of the Girl Child and you're not excited. You're doing great.

01:32 That's more like it. So just I've mentioned what your names are but give

01:38 us a better idea of who you are what you do with Plan International. I'll start

01:43 with you Mary. Okay so my name is Kudoto Mary I'm a peer educator on Plan B

01:49 SMART projects. What does that even mean? Okay so I do

01:55 sensitization on girl child rights and women empowerment as well. How long have

02:03 you done this? Oh for about two years ago. For about two years now? Yes please. Wow.

02:09 That's some good you know stuff you can put on your CV already. Linda? My name is

02:16 Linda I am a youth advocate with Plan International where I champion the rights

02:21 of young people and women particularly by raising their voices and raising my

02:27 voice on issues that affect women. And what exactly do you do at IDG? What

02:33 exactly is your role? Just give us some specifics. Both of you have spoken

02:39 about some of what you do peer educator this and that but on a daily basis what

02:44 what is expected of you for example? On a daily basis issues that concern women

02:49 like for example like yeah so for example currently we are drumming home

02:55 the issue of taxes on sanitary towels for women so when issues like these come

03:00 up we join the fight we join the conversations and make sure that those

03:04 policies are affected. And for you Mary? Okay so me too I see to it that girls

03:10 attain higher position in life so also assure them that the office is not

03:16 their kitchen and room but they have something better to do in life. Okay so

03:20 that antiquated mindset of oh the woman is meant to be in the kitchen and and

03:27 the man rather should go out there you're trying to disabuse the minds of

03:31 your peers about that. So what category of people would you usually meet?

03:36 Your age mates? Your contemporaries? My age mates yes. And for you usually? My age

03:42 mates young people and sometimes older ones because the conversation around

03:48 discrimination has been long going on and so people don't even realize that

03:53 they are being discriminated against so we raise their voices and then we point

03:56 it out. Of course workplace discrimination is also prominent in

04:00 there. Equal pay for equal work. It's not really equalizing but we'll see how it

04:05 goes. Let's talk about the theme for this year's International Day of the Girl

04:09 Child. Linda would you like to share with us? This year's theme, international

04:13 theme is invest in girls rights, our leadership, our well-being. Invest let's do

04:21 this invest in girls rights, our leadership, our well-being. What sort of

04:27 impact does the theme have on on you reflecting on how far this has come all

04:33 through the 20th century till now? How relevant is this theme do you think?

04:37 Okay so when they keep on investing in girls it also gives us the

04:42 zeal to do something to push ourselves to attain our full potential or achieve our

04:49 aspirations. That's interesting. What's your take on this? When we talk about the

04:54 investment in girls rights, Ash has clearly mentioned that it's like an

04:57 outward sort of investment. We are also pushing for inward investment so the

05:02 girls themselves should be able to take up roles. They should be able to avail

05:06 themselves and take up opportunities to be better at what they do and make sure

05:10 that they go out there and then achieve their potential. So you are goals

05:15 advocating with Plan International Ghana. Locally what theme are we running

05:20 with? Okay so our theme is girls activism and resourcing. Girls activism and resourcing.

05:28 Why did we choose that? Okay so I want to allow my sister to explain.

05:35 I lied. Linda.

05:37 So girls activism. Plan has continuously invested in women and women's activism. So when we say

05:44 girls activism is by giving them the opportunity to have a voice on issues

05:48 that matter to them, issues that concern them especially if it affects their

05:52 entire life in the future. And then when we talk about the resourcing is giving

05:56 them the necessary opportunities and equipping them with the skills and

06:02 resources to be able to achieve the aspirations that they have set for

06:07 themselves. I'll come to both of you now with one question. In all your work and

06:12 even looking at the work of your colleagues, what are some of the

06:17 challenges that you realize girls, young women face at home? We've already started

06:23 talking about some of the stereotypes. Oh the woman must be banished to the

06:26 kitchen. At home, at the workplace, in the community. What are some of the

06:30 challenges you see every now and then? Starting with you Mary. So in our various

06:35 homes, girls are not allowed to take part in decision-making and they are not

06:41 allowed, they are not allowed the girls voice to be heard and seen.

06:46 For example, child marriage. The girl doesn't have any right to say whether I am

06:52 interested or not. They just give out the girl for marriage which is not good. So

06:56 this is the biggest challenge I guess I'm facing in our homes. Well while you say that

07:02 some of them are going through that but I also know places where they are

07:07 given a lot of opportunity to express themselves and all of that. But I agree

07:11 with you Mary. I think it was sometime over the last two years we've had a few

07:15 instances of people. I remember one was up north they were trying to smuggle the

07:19 girl to I think Burkina Faso, her husband and she was just a child

07:23 basically and she was being married off. So true. But from where you sit, what are

07:27 some of the experiences you have? I will talk about some of the challenges girls

07:31 face in school and some of the challenges that they face at the workplace.

07:35 Right. Yes so for schools there are not enough gender sensitive policies for

07:41 women to make it conducive enough especially when it comes to sanitary

07:45 conditions, proper sanitary conditions. Some schools still do not have a

07:49 changing area where girls can make changes when they are in their menstrual

07:53 periods and there are some schools that because they don't have that, girls like

07:57 would run away from school to go and change in the afternoon and never return.

08:01 Other girls would also not even go to school at all in that particular month. Which means

08:07 that once every week, one week out of every month, girls who don't have, who are

08:13 not in areas where there are these changing areas would miss classes. So

08:17 eventually they might have to drop out of school. And then at the workplace I

08:20 think that there are not a lot of gender sensitive policies and I

08:24 think this is a better time for us to push for a three day paid leave for

08:31 every woman aside already existing of this at every institution because we

08:36 know that women go through changes every time in every period of the month and

08:40 those the first three days of these periods can be challenging and very

08:43 troublesome. We are pushing for a paid leave for all girls during that period

08:47 of their month so that they can go back, recuperate and come back better and

08:50 energize instead of walking through that particular period and being inactive. It

08:55 is going to take a toll on both the girl and even the institution. So it is going

08:59 to be mutually beneficial if institutions are able to adopt that and

09:02 would admonish government to push for that. Admonish, I like the term.

09:07 They are admonishing government.

09:15 So here's where it gets interesting. I've been advocating the removal of taxes.

09:21 You know how do we even categorize that as a luxury product? You know it okay let

09:28 me let me watch my I was about to say it makes no but I'm sure you get the drift.

09:34 But especially when it comes to sanitary products, sanitary pads and the taxes on

09:42 them. There are two sides to the conversation. The AGI, the Association of

09:46 Ghana Industries has said that if the taxes are removed on the foreign ones

09:51 you bring into the system it would mean that they can't they cannot compete and

09:56 that they will be driven out of business. But others have also said that these

10:00 taxes make no real sense. Where do you sit? I mean for you the bottom line is

10:05 that you can have access to them. What do you think about that conversation?

10:09 Both of you, Mary and Mary what do you think? Okay so sanitary pad is a very

10:16 essential need for the adolescent girl. So if those tasks are imposed on them most

10:23 of the adolescent girl will be like okay if I can't buy the sanitary pad then let me

10:27 use unclean material. Those things can lead to the contracting of reproductive

10:33 diseases which also leads to another cost of buying medicines and other things. So

10:39 we think we are pleading with the government to do something to the

10:42 sanitary pad for us. Right. Yes and I think menstruation is a natural

10:47 occurrence. We cannot wait for local industries to get on their feet before

10:51 we push for issues that are very very sensitive. So we stand I think plant has

10:56 been pushing for this. Plant has been drumming home the removal of sanitary

11:00 towels for a very long time now and today we are actually very happy that the

11:03 voices are more as an MP has introduced the bill to Parliament. We are pleading

11:08 with governments that these taxes are removed because it is essential and is a

11:13 natural occurrence. We cannot decide when to have menstruation and when not to have

11:17 menstruation. I know for certain that if anybody could decide I do not want to go

11:23 through that every month. No one would opt to go through it every month. It's

11:29 part of a natural cycle that women must go through even as they also you know

11:35 give birth to all of us. It's a natural process so we shouldn't make it even

11:39 more difficult for them. As we wrap this conversation Mary, Linda, today is the

11:45 International Day of the Girl Child. On a day like this we get to highlight some

11:50 of the challenges that young women, girls go through. What would be your message to

11:57 parents, people in power, politics, religious leaders because sometimes to

12:03 religion plays a role you know even the child marriages you speak of sometimes

12:08 religion comes in. I'm sure you understand where I'm going. What would be

12:12 your message to the powers that be out there including your parents? Okay so my

12:18 message to the parents is that they should give both responsibility to both

12:23 boys and girls. So that we... No discrimination. Yes. So that we the girls

12:27 can also have access to certain things like education. We can even get a

12:32 little time to learn. Not that they should give all the freedom to the boys

12:37 while we are suffering. It's not good. And when the conversation of equality is

12:44 started I think that a lot of people call out but then there's a quote by

12:48 Michelle Obama that says that no country can ever truly flourish if it stifles

12:53 the potentials of its women and deprives itself of having the contributions of

12:59 half of its population. So with that in mind if you decide to push women on the

13:04 side and not have a lot of gender sensitive policies that can make them be

13:09 able to part of conversations and decisions that affect everyone then it

13:13 means that there is a problem. So today our message is that we are pushing that

13:18 there are enough gender sensitive policies that can make women comfortable

13:22 enough to be able to engage in conversations and aspire and achieve

13:26 their goals. Right. Which high school high schools did you attend? There's a reason

13:32 I'm asking. Me I do everything in the house. Like I'm the mother for my house.

13:37 Wow. I do everything. Yes. Interesting. You mind telling me how old are you?

13:46 Oh I'm 18 years old. She's already shouldering all these responsibilities. At her age she

13:53 should be allowed to live her life, enjoy her youth. Basically part of your youth

13:58 is being stolen from you. That's the reality. Unfortunate. This is why we

14:04 ought to reach out. How about you? At home or my high school? High school. My

14:08 high school Infant and Man Girls. Infant and Man Girls. Okay I'm asking that because

14:12 again something that I have wanted to see happen. In the National Science and

14:16 Math quiz no female you know single-sex female school has won it before. I was

14:23 happy when recently though it's my older brother's school St. Peter's fell to

14:28 Wesley Girls. Hopefully this becomes the year. International Day of the Girl Child

14:33 and then a girl school wins. But the boys they say lie, lie. We'll see how that

14:38 goes. But Linda and Mary thank you so much for joining the conversation. I hear

14:45 there's some sign you do. Can you share with us? Yes. Girls get equal. So the equal

14:50 sign. Okay so which hand? Like this? Yes just equal. So just be at par. And then we have

14:58 the sign of activism. So you should be able to engage in conversations

15:06 and join. Join conversations that affect you as a young girl. Example the ongoing

15:10 sanitary pad conversation. It's important because it affects you as a girl. I've been a

15:15 long time advocate on that one. Hopefully someday. I've heard conversations in

15:19 certain circles. Hopefully some change will be brought to bear. Mary thanks for

15:24 coming. Thank you for having us. Keep holding it down at home yeah. Yes please.

15:28 Things will get better with time. And that has been our conversation on the

15:32 International Day of the Girl Child. We're really proud to have had these

15:37 girls, these young women join us in the studio. Mary Kudoto is a peer educator.

15:41 Linda Akabensa is a youth and girls advocate and they joined us for this

15:46 all-important conversation. Do stay with us. We'll be up next with a lot more on

15:51 the AM show. We'll be right back.

15:54 [Music]

International Day of the Girl Child: 2023 Theme: Invest in Girls' Rights: Our Leadership, Our Well-being | The Big Stories

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