Girls Rule - International Day of the Girl

On October 11, 2012 the United Nations officially designated this day as the first annual UN International Day of the Girl. What a great event this is to highlight gender inequalities, focus on  how girls are discriminated throughout the world and highlight the ways girls are abused (verbally, sexually and physically) by their societies.

This day is special as it finally helps to educate people around the world on the importance that girls can have in their families, communities and the world. For girls it highlights the importance to them of knowing their rights as girls - like the right to food and clean safe drinking water, access to health care, the right to say NO to unwanted sexual advances and most importantly the right to quality education. It is a known fact that girls and women really do have the greatest impact on the improvement of their communities. And education truly is the only way girls can make the most of their life and have the greatest impact on moving their families and their communities from poverty to prosperity.

Things will not change overnight, opportunities for girls will develop slowly but if the world knows that girls are a valued part of society change can happen.

 

Members of Sere Girls Club collecting garbage along the roadside

 

 

Girls burning the collected garbage - keeping Wongonyi Village Clean

 

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Our own Sere Girls Club in Wongonyi Village, Kenya know the importance of being girls and the impact they can have on their community. To celebrate the ist annual UN International Day of the Girl, they held a Community Clean-up educating the local villagers on the importance of having a clean village and that everyone is responsibile for taking care of the planet. We applaud the girls of Sere Girls Club for this great initiative - you go girls!

Celebrating Mahatma Gandhi Day - Oct. 2, 2012

I didn't know it until I heard it on the CBC this morning that today was Mahatma Gandhi Day, a day to celebrate the life and message Gandhi had for the world. If you don't know about Gandhi, he was the leader of India's struggle for independence, a spiritual teacher who moved people to adopt a life of peace. Unfortunately Gandhi died on January 30, 1948 at the hand of an assassin.

He had an extraordinary life from a boy growing up in India, to a student of law in London, then working to achieve legal equality for Indians and Negroes in South Africa and his final years spent back in India helping to secure India's independence. In his later years he developed a great spirituality which attracted many followers and his teachings still live on today for those of us who seek a world where all people are equal and live without poverty. He lived a life of passion and non-violence and encouraged others to do the same.

Mahatma Gandhi made many pronouncements during his life which if followed today would result in a world of peace. I have included some of Gandhi's sayings that resonate with me and I know that if others took heed of Gandhi's words I am sure we would all be able to enjoy a harmonious world where all could live in equality.

Here are some of Mahatma Gandhi's thoughts and  sayings:

" Unity in diversity  - The need for the moment is not one religion but mutual respect and tolerance of the devotees of different religions."

"On the reduction of poverty - Industrialization will increase India's grinding pauperism. Instead of increasing mass production, let us look to production by the masses."

" His ideal village would be a complete republic, independent of its neighbours for its vital wants and yet interdependent for many wants in which dependence is a necessity including growing its own useful crops, providing clean water, schools, theatre, public halls and electricity in every hut. For Gandhi self governing and self reliant villages trading with nearby self-sufficient villages was his recipe for democracy."

" All my life I have stood, as everyone should stand, for minorities and those in need . . ."

The Ronnie Fund stands for those in need in Wongonyi Village, Kenya who need not a hand out but a hand up, for these proud African people really know the solutions to their own problems they just need a few ideas and perhaps a tool or two to help them realize their potential.

So today we celebrate all that Mahatma Gandhi stood for - for those in the minority, those in need, those who have not been treated justly, those without the simple basic necessities of life. Take a look at your own life, if you have been blessed then pass your blessings on to others go without.