International Day of the Girl Child, “Girl’s Vision for The Future”

UNICEF Belize celebrates International Day of the Girl Child every year on October eleventh. Today, to mark this special occasion, they hosted an event at the Belize City Civic Center with girls from all over the country. Around three hundred girls gathered to hear motivational speeches and discuss the challenges they face in society, as well as the opportunities available to them. This year’s theme is “Girl’s Vision for The Future.” Here’s more from today’s inspiring event.

 

Alison Parker, Country Representative, UNICEF

“Today is when we commemorate the international day of the girl. This is a day that the United Nations put aside for us to recognize issued of girls across the world. For us in the Latin America and Caribbean region there are a number of areas we are having to look at what is the situation with girls. So, firstly we are looking of issues of violence against girls and women and then the second piece is looking at where we are in terms of child marriage and early union and we find that these are beliefs and norms that impact the girls and women at the time. Then we are also looking at what are the positive issues that girls have brought to the table. I think discussions around the challenges and negativities are out there. Today what we want to share are the opportunities.”

 

Valerie Woods, Speaker of the House of Representatives

“I work in an environment that is male dominated, and I am only the fourth women speaker out of twelve I believe. It was important for me to convey to the young girls, I understand there is representation from all six districts, that they need to be bold, but more importantly, they need to believe in themselves. There is so much bullying. Women and girls are treated with a different standard. Our statistics show that domestic violence, that we continue to have this scourge, and we need to be there for our young girls that they are good enough the way they are. They don’t need to pretend to be something else and it is the country that needs to step up, not them.”