Plan International Liberia has launched a campaign to ensure thousands of Liberian girls can learn, lead, decide and thrive for a better career, or future endeavors.
The “Girls Get Equal” campaign was launched Friday, 14 October 2022 at Plan International Liberia’s head office in Congo Town.
It aims to empower young women to develop and have an interest in assuming leadership positions to promote national development.
It is part of a global campaign by the parent humanitarian organization, Plan International, to transform power relations in favor of girls for at least 100 million girls around the world.
A Girl Child is to lead in decision-making and participate in politics, challenging male counterparts in every aspect of society.
The theme is to attract national leaders and policymakers to give girls and women, both able and disabled, adequate representation in all decision-making processes and developmental gatherings organized from local to international levels.
Launching the campaign, Plan International Liberia Country Director Miriam Murray stressed the need to create a safe space for girls to advocate on issues that affect them.
Murray called for equal freedom, equal power, and equal representation.
She said Girls Get Equal is a call to action that requires everyone to be involved.
But Murray also blasted parents for the challenges [girls] face in society, by not bringing out the value and potential in them.
“If your parents show the value in you, you’re going to make it,” she said.
“You’re going to lead, you’re not going to be marginalized,” she continued.
Further, Madam Murray said the campaign will enlighten the youth, especially young ladies on the power they have to change the world.
In Africa, where people are struggling to respect women and girls’ rights, he said, the campaign will advocate for girls and women to be outspoken and confident to fight for their rights.
She added that it will advocate for their ability to express their minds on all issues of national interest.
Murray urged the participants of the campaign to make their advocacy to be impact-driven, something she said is the essence of the campaign.
She also reaffirmed Plan International Liberia’s commitment to the Girls Get Equal campaign, equal power now!
Young activists and leaders of girl-led organizations attended the launch where a prepared youth manifesto was read.
Addressing the participants, Ms. Banica S. Elliott, presidential aspirant, Federation of Liberian Youth (FLY), said it was unfortunate how many girls were unaware of their rights.
She said they, therefore, surrendered to ill treatments meted out against them in society.
Banica cautioned girls and boys to be selective in the kind of people they mingle with as it could negatively impact their lives and mislead them into immoral practices.
She further charged girls to take up the mantle to lead, and take steps in training and research, noting that an informed woman is a transformed woman.
Banica also suggested the need for advocate training for both sex, arguing that if only females are trained to be advocates, beautiful ladies and well-educated girls in the hands of men who may not know about it might underrate and maltreat the females.
Ms. Elliott urged all to join the campaign to fight for equality and balance for women and girls.
She said they are key contributors to national development.
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