United Nations' International Day of the Girl 2018: Hussaina and Hafsatu

Hussaina Musa, a 13-year old is one of the over 130 million girls out of school in the world. Hussaina like many girls in northern nigeria in her shoes, dropped out of school not because she wants to get married but simply due to cost her widowed mother could not bear.
Hussaina’s mum, now 28 year old married since she was 15 in Sabon Gayan, a community in Kaduna State. She gave birth to 6 children including Hussaina, before death snatched her husband. And this was when Hussaina’s travails began.
“I left school not quite long because I could not afford the expenses it involved any further. I was in primary 3 when I stopped going to school” in the words of Hussaina, who is ambitious to return to the classroom and learn.

- Development Post

A teacher helps Hafsatu, 13, at a UNICEF-supported school in the northern state of Bauchi, Nigeria. Photo:UNICEF.

Nigeria already has 10 million children out of school—the highest number in the world. Almost one of three primary age children is not enrolled and one in four secondary-school age children. In many states, girls are twice as likely to be out of school as boys. In some parts of Nigeria, only five percent of the poorest young women are literate. Given these challenges, it is "especially abhorrent" that the girls were abducted to prevent them from attending school.

~ UNICEF

International Day of the Girl Child11 October
Since 2012, 11 October has been marked as the International Day of the Girl. The day aims to highlight and address the needs and challenges girls face, while promoting girls' empowerment and the fulfillment of their human rights. 

2018 theme: With Her: A Skilled GirlForce

Today's generation of girls are preparing to enter a world of work that is being transformed by innovation and automation. Educated and skilled workers are in great demand, but roughly a quarter of young people – most of them female – are currently neither employed or in education or training.
Of the 1 billion young people – including 600 million adolescent girls – that will enter the workforce in the next decade, more than 90% of those living in developing countries will work in the informal sector, where low or no pay, abuse and exploitation are common. 

On 11 October, International Day of the Girl, we are working alongside all girls to expand existing learning opportunities, chart new pathways and calling on the global community to rethink how to prepare them for a successful transition into the world of work.
Under the theme: With Her: A Skilled GirlForce, International Day of the Girl will mark the beginning of a year-long effort to bring together partners and stakeholders to advocate for, and draw attention and investments to, the most pressing needs and opportunities for girls to attain skills for employability.

- UN Women.

~ Posted by Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima, Founder/Executive Director of Girls United Together for Success (GUTS) Project and leading organiser of the annual United Nations' International Day of the Girl Child in Nigeria since 2013. https://www.amazon.com/author/ekenyerengozimichaelchima