Being a girl child in my country.The difficulties, traumatic experiences and breakthroughs

In my city, growing up as a girl in most cases is such a traumatic experience especially, if your parents are not having the financial backing. You become prey to horrendous men such that they take undue advantage of you if you do not stand firm. Being the first born of five siblings in a developing country is burdensome. For one to breakthrough you have to face life's hurdles by engaging in menial jobs such as cleaning,hawking,daycare jobs just so you do not fall prey to men. Because as young,beautiful and naive as you are, you will be a target to many men. Getting through school is another tough one,you had to fund your own tuition by seeking help from benefactors which sometimes, rejections, threats, harrassments and NOs are the answers you get. You had to go through all these and not having a thought to give up. Just because when you give up it would rather push you to the bottom which would in a way ruin your dreams. Getting access to learning materials was another tough challenge as well. Most at times you had to resort to borrowing books from friends just so you can catch up. Speaking of food was another tough challenge. Getting meals to eat before studies is something that will turn you to a *Highly Spiritual* person because of the frequent fasting you have to do just because you cannot afford meals. Any time you are home for holidays you had to continue with the menial jobs just so you can get your provisions ready before school reopens. Getting access to proper hygiene needs ( toiletries, menstrual pads) was out of the picture because you cannot afford these items. Inspite of all these you still have to put in much efforts and also be much determined to win. If you do not win, you will definetly fail which you would rather not choose to fail. You do not have to blame your parents too much because they had little. I had to go through High school, through to a Health training college where with all the hussle and tussle i managed to come out with a diploma in nursing and currrently working in a hospital in my country. I am not stopping at this though, because i aim to go higher than this to be able to help girls in my community. In view of this i am planning to get an NGO( Let's Pad our girls) to educate young girls on reproductive health, menstrual hygiene and health, and also teach them not to relent in their efforts in achieving their lifetime goals. Young girls need to hold the mantle for their life. There is this practice in my country where parents give out their young girls to men into early marriage with the notion of these men taking sole responsibilty of them. These practice has done more harm than good to the victims involved. They rather end up being abused and highly disrepected by their so called suitors just because the girls have lost their voice and are solely dependent on these men. The moment a man starts to provide everything for you, he thinks he owns you and will start doing as he wishes to you. These girl's dignity and self worth are being stolen from them at tender ages. Their dreams, aspirations and goals are cut short because some of them end up being school dropouts. Teenage pregnancies, abortions, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, prostitution to mention just a few are some of the outcomes of this menace. This canker needs to be dealt with so much so that the girl child can be free. Many of these girls are going through same experiences i shared earlier and some are not able to stand up as strong as i narrated in the begining part of my story. The girl child needs to be heard at all times. Who said a girl cannot be a doctor, a teacher, lawyer,engineer,a president or a great business mogul? Who made the girl child to be only a *mother"and that her place is only in the kitchen? Why has the girl child been relegated to things at the bottom? Why can't the girl child rub shoulders with greatness? Until this questions are answered i will continuesly speak for girls. Enough is Enough. Its 21st century, a new dawn, a new awakening, a fresh chapter where girls need to be more empowered rather than just getting married and being totally dependent on men. Parents should stop telling girls to solely depend on men fo their everyday needs. Everyone gets tired at a point. There are lot of reported cases of gender based violence among girls and women in my city. Girls are beaten, raped, murdered always for varying reasons. The most worrying aspect is the more you educate them on their self worth and dignity, they end up going to the abuser just because of little, little benefits. When will these disease be cured? Girls should own their voice, stand up firm and strong. Have that will power and achieve greater heights for themselves. More work need to be done and it starts from the home yes i mean the home. Women need to sit up with these girls educate, train and support them so much. Growing up social media was nothing to say much about and these days we have it at our beck and call. I am thankful for the creativity of technological giants all over the world. These mediums are so much needed for creating awareness and also for speaking out. Society needs to see the importance of women in general and treat us with much respect and dignity. Parents should know that they cannot exchange the girl child for money, we are far more precious than rubies. We have value that needs not to be underrated. Girl you are a treasure and anyones who seeks to find you needs to dig deeper. I am Selasi.