Growing up in the Eastern part of Freetown, Sierra Leone, my birth place, I sensed that girls my age in our communities hardly spoke about real issues or things that worried them i.e. We hardly spoke about our dreams and aspirations or that specific thing that inspired and motivated us was not really there. In my day there were lots of young girls my age who found themselves in situations where t
hey have to be teenage mothers before they finished high school. There were few who were lucky and went back to school. Twenty years later, our younger sisters and daughters are repeating the same cycle of events; young girls with no self confidence and low self esteem. This leads them to accept abuse and sometimes to sleep with whomever they feel will buy them the latest phone, dress or pay to go to the club and dance. Some 16/17 yr olds are not shy about it at all. The Government and NGOs have done a lot to try to address some of these problems in our society, but what I see lacking is the self realization of each and every girl child to know that they should value every aspect of their being especially their bodies and their minds. For them to know that being confident and having the will to say, “I have more value for myself and cannot be bought for Le,100,000” and to be able to look men in the eye and say, "ok so you will sleep with me but then what is next? I am going to school and I came from a humble home if you impregnate me now, what comes next for me? How will I manage"? Hence the creation of this cycle. It is my wish to bring to light the power within each girl child to the world. I want my daughters, your daughters, our daughters to feel worthy of themselves and know that it is ok to be afraid, but brave and courageous enough to look people in the eye and say “ I refuse to be abused. I deserve to be respected, I deserve to be desired ,admired and appreciated for my intelligence and not to be used as a s*xual object because my body is beautiful and will be discarded when I am no longer useful to you! I deserve to be given audience to express my views in and out of the classroom and not to be told to shut up because am a girl." For young girls to know that it is their right to tell the men to use condoms to avoid unwanted pregnancies and STDs or be brave to say let’s wait till I finish high school or college before having s*x or say yes! S*x is the easier part but what comes after, if I get pregnant or got infected with STDs especially HIV and AIDs? For girls to turn the table and ask the men to prove their love to them by waiting for her, why? Because all arguments leading to s*x between a man or woman, boy or girl falls in favor of the brother. Prove your love to me by having s*x with me? Must it really come to that? Can we change the dialogue to: what do you want to be in life when you finish school/college? Can’t this argument be in the girl child’s favor where she has to believe that even if a man buys her the moon, it should be because he has observed some goodness within her and not just for the use of her body? Can’t we change the status quo that it is ok to buy me a drink as an act of kindness with no expectations? In my country Sierra Leone girls are being abused s*xually for as little as a plate of rice. So dear parents and guardians, regardless of your status within the society it is important to educate, inspire, motivate our girl child to have value for themselves and what they stand for within their households, classroom and on the streets. Our upbringing may be different but our core values are the same rich or poor. That is being able to love as well as being loved in return, being cherished, valued, respected cared for and allowed to know my worth .And that I cannot be bought, silenced or used that am just as good as any other girl to be listened to regardless of money or status!
