Rome (Italy). On 11 October 2024, the International Day of the Girl Child is celebrated, established by the UN General Assembly in 2011 to raise public awareness about the situation of girls around the world. The Day reminds us that every child can achieve her potential and opportunities if she receives education; if she is valued and if her human rights are guaranteed. The empowerment of girls is fundamental to the development of sustainable, peaceful, and just societies and the promotion of the common good.
The theme of World Day 2024, “Girls’ vision for the future,” highlights the need to fully unlock the potential of the world’s more than 1.1 billion girls through support, education, and leadership opportunities.
Inequality, discrimination, violence, injustice, child marriage, child labor, and different treatment in health care are some of the challenges that girls face every day around the world. UNICEF reports that about 1 in 5 girls have not yet completed lower Secondary School and almost 4 out of 10 girls do not complete upper Secondary School.
In addition, around 90% of girls and young adolescent women in low-income Countries do not have access to the internet, while their male peers are twice as likely to be online. Globally, girls between the ages of 5 and 14 spend 160 million hours a day more than boys in domestic work and unpaid care. 3 out of 4 teenage girls continue to register 3 new HIV infections. Almost one in four girls, married or living together, between the ages of 15 and 19, has been physically or sexually assaulted by a partner at least once in their life. After the Covid-19 pandemic, the risk of child marriage has increased.
“Girls already have their own vision of a world in which they can be fulfilled. They are working to make this vision a reality and they are asking for their voice to be heard. It is time to listen to them”, says UN Secretary-General António Guterres in his statement in the Message for the Day. He also stresses that, “the girls’ courage, hope, and determination are a force to be reckoned with. It is time for the world to step up and help turn their visions and aspirations into reality.”
The International Institute of May Help of Christians (IIMA) of Geneva is always committed to advancing girls in the 97 Countries where it works, promoting their rights and dignity, especially the right to education, providing them with skills and human rights tools for the full development of their potential, improving their ability to participate in particular in decision-making processes and to be leaders in creating a new humanism, a better world.
This commitment is clearly evident in the responses of the 70 Provinces of the Institute to the questionnaire of the IIMA Human Rights Office on initiatives implemented in line with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, from 2020 to 2023.
From data coming from 87 countries, it is clear that the Salesian Sisters and the Educating Communities work tirelessly to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and to promote opportunities for lifelong learning for all (SDG4). They provide pre-school education for 157,998 children; primary education for 507,758 children; secondary education for 376,243; vocational formation for 66,257 persons; and digital literacy courses (including media education, computer skills, and cyberbullying prevention) to 245,270 adolescents and young people.
To achieve gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls (SDG 5), these Provinces have promoted various programs such as the elimination of early marriage (154,655 beneficiaries); the elimination of violence against women and children (296,208 beneficiaries); the elimination of human trafficking (60,434 beneficiaries); the elimination of child labor (76,680 beneficiaries); the promotion of girls in STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (76,803 beneficiaries).
Although the list is not exhaustive, these figures reflect the FMA’s commitment to investing in girls’ future with well-defined goals and strategies.
The confidence in the future of every person, especially the most vulnerable, is deeply rooted in the Salesian conviction that every human being is created in the image of God and in each one is sown the seed of good. Pope Francis, in his Discourse to young people in Venice, on 28 April 2024, he reminded them to believe and embrace with a sense of wonder their inner beauty and that of others, “… creation invites us to be creators of beauty. Please, don’t forget this: be creators of beauty, and do something that was not there before.”
