What's wrong with being a girl? Global Goal #5

The global goal I feel most passionate about is #5, Gender Equality. This is a goal that I can really identify being a woman. Especially in this country many woman have limited rights and opportunities compared to men. 

Last year I joined an organization called Project Girl. This organization focuses on empowering younger girls living in Batey Lecheria. Batey Lecheria used to be a sugar can field, but now it is no longer producing sugar, instead it is producing an absurd amount of unemployed, undocumented young men and women. As a member of Project Girl I visited the Batey at least once a month. We would take guest speakers and host workshops and activities. We focused on topics such as self-esteem, teenage pregnancy and motivation- amongst others. 

I feel like project girl’s goal is to take these young women from the batey, who may be just like me or the girl sitting next to me in class, and inspire them to rise above and break the cycle of poverty they live in. As the year progressed I got to know many of the girls more closely and noticed that we share many of the same qualities. We both have hopes and dreams, ambitions, insecurities, and most importantly, we are both girls. Whatever problem I may be facing in my life, she may be facing the same one, multiplied by two just because of her economic background and her gender. 

We must create more projects like this one. We must make girls like the ones living in the batey rise above. We must not let a simple gender separate us from our dreams, or ambitions and our capacities. To do things like a girl should mean to do things with great talent, not to do them mediocrely. And I will close with one of the wisest girl’s words, “we cannot succeed when half of us are held back”. Well said Malala, well said.