This International Day of the Girl 2020, we want to focus on a burning topic in Rwanda: its burgeoning rate of teenage pregnancy, and how we fix it.
An adolescent girl living in Rwanda, especially one living in poverty, faces unique, intersectional challenges in her community which severely hinder her ability to realize her full potential, enjoy her rights, and ensure a healthy, prosperous future for herself, her family, and her community. Many of the challenges girls in Rwanda face are directly linked to gender inequality and structural barriers, propped up by harmful gender norms. Rwandan gender biases perpetuate the idea that men are generally superior to women. From a young age, girls and boys in Rwanda are prepared to fulfill socially expected gender roles as adults, where women are meant to become wives, mothers, and caregivers in the domestic realm, while men take on the roles of leaders, decision makers, and economic providers. Despite government efforts to encourage girls to study, gender norms still enforce a system which prioritizes boys’ education, and in which many girls don’t get a chance to complete secondary school due to many hours spent daily on unpaid care work, affecting their performance at school and leading to school dropouts.
I am a Canadian by birth, and a woman of Ukrainian heritage. My great-great-grandparents traveled to Canada on a cattle boat generations ago to build a better life for themselves (acknowledging that ‘Canada’ itself is the traditional territory of diverse First Nations communities). I am the daughter of that legacy, and I am proud of and humbled by my Ukrainian history. Though our Ukrainian family in Canada is far from the country of Ukraine, that heritage is kept alive through Ukrainian language, traditions, food and customs. As a feminist activist and a Ukrainian daughter, I feel compelled to speak out about the war in Ukraine that is currently unfolding.
We are here for the awareness! Did you know the compound effect of harmful gender norms for generations? And while we work and wait for the long-term mindset shift to take it’s full course in the lives of boys and girls, we have introduced Girl Empowerment Self Defense (GESD) training to equip girls with skills and techniques for their safety. Read all about it now!
