September 2004

The Girl Child: The Future Depends on Her

November 6 in New York City

In July, Joan Holmes made the following statements about this year's fall event at a global gathering of Hunger Project activists in New York.

As we know, women are at the center of the development process. When they are empowered, these are the results:

• faster economic growth
• less corruption in governance
• better childhood nutrition
• lower child mortality
• increased agricultural production
• more children in school, including girls
• reduced health hazards
• greatly improved overall health and well-being of society

The futures of girls and women are tied together. Girls cannot advance without the advancement of women, and no improvement in the lives of women will be sustained unless girls are given tools and opportunity to reach their potential. For they are the women of tomorrow.

It is critical and appropriate that the world’s attention be brought to the conditions in which little girls lead their lives.

For these reasons, this year’s fall event is dedicated to the girl child.

As a Global Family, We Do a Bad Job of Taking Care of Girls

The truth is that we as a global family are doing a really bad job of taking care of our little girls.
As a human family, we often don’t feed girls well. We don’t nourish them or educate them. We often put them to work when they are very young. We don’t take care of their health and well-being. And in all too many instances, we don’t let them live at all.

• Girls are up to three times more likely than boys to suffer malnutrition.
• Girls are less likely to receive medical care than boys.
• By age 18, girls have received an average of 4.4 years less education than boys.
• Girls begin working in the home at a younger age than their brothers, and work seven more hours a week on average than boys.
• An estimated 70 million girls of school age do not attend school. It is highly likely that they all work, most of them at home. Their work is invisible, isolated, unpaid and unrecognized.
• 15 million girls aged 15–19 years give birth each year.
• Female genital mutilation affects an estimated 2 million girls (most often between the ages of four and eight) each year.
• Nearly half of known sexual assaults are committed against girls aged 15 years and younger.

• 32 percent of the reported child rapes in South Africa are committed by teachers.
• Between 60 million and 100 million females are missing from the world…victims of gender-based feticide, infanticide, malnutrition and neglect.
If we are serious about ending hunger, and we know that the subjugation of women is one of the root causes of hunger on the planet, then we must include girls in our strategic thinking.

The Hunger Project Improves the Lives of Girls

We place the highest priority on transforming the severe discrimination against girls and women that gives rise to malnutrition. We empower adults — parents — to understand these issues and take action to remedy them. The result is that rural communities are now taking better care of their girl children.

• At our African epicenters, nutrition training and breast-feeding information for new mothers ensures that baby girls are better breast-fed and given more nutritious food at weaning.

• The epicenters are providing supplementary food at their nursery schools, where there are now more girls than boys.

• HIV/AIDS and Gender Inequality Workshops at the epicenters empower adolescent girls, who have the highest rate of infection, to protect themselves.

• Epicenter adult literacy classes emphasize the importance of school attendance for girls, encouraging the adults to use profits from income-generating activities to pay for girls’ school fees.

• In India, special versions of the Women’s Leadership Workshop focus on empowering adolescent girls to become elected panchayat (village council) leaders within a few years.

• The women panchayat leaders we have trained have improved the quality of food at preschool feeding programs, and ensured that girls are enrolled.

• In Bangladesh, our National Girl Child Day has put a national spotlight on stopping all forms of discrimination against girls — 500 events were held last year, and dominated the media.

• Animators in Bangladesh, panchayat leaders in India, and participants in African Woman Food Farmer Initiative credit programs have ensured that girls are enrolled in school and are able to attend — whether that means providing uniforms or ensuring there is a woman teacher in the school.

• Traditional birth attendants, mobilized in Africa, Asia and Latin America, play a special role with the births of adolescent mothers, who are particularly vulnerable to birth complications.

• At the recent Fourth Continental Meeting of Indigenous Women, organized by our team in Peru, women leaders from 20 countries declared their commitment to provide leadership training for girls to prepare them to step forward as tomorrow’s leaders.

Join Us in New York on November 6–7!

Please make plans now to join more than 1,200 diplomats, dignitaries and Hunger Project partners from 25 countries around the world in the grand ballroom of the New York Hilton Hotel on Saturday night, November 6, for “The Girl Child: The Future Depends on Her.”
As Joan described it, “This will be an event where we come to know about the lives of little girls; where we can celebrate and honor girl children; where we will immerse ourselves in the lives of little girls.

“You will take the escalator up to the third floor, into a space specially created to celebrate the lives of little girls around the world. A banner reading “Celebrate!” will greet you. There will be photographs of little girls in all shapes and sizes. A sea of little girls. No matter what country they are from, developed or developing; dressed in their best clothes, or the one dress that they have worn for several years; no matter what circumstance they live in — what you will see is that this is a special little human being.

“In this event, we will come to recognize how we treat girl children on the planet, The Hunger Project’s intention to transform this condition, and the celebration of a girl’s life. We will hear from young women from India, Bangladesh, Africa and Latin America, who will share the story of their lives as little girls.”

Tickets for the black-tie gala reception and dinner are $250, of which $125 is not tax-deductible in the U.S. You may purchase tickets at www.thp.org or by phoning 1-800-228-6691.
This is a busy weekend for hotels in New York, so please make hotel reservations early! Hotels giving special rates are listed at www.thp.org.