HeforShe campaign: the bridge to gender equality

https://www.facebook.com/iaagfoundation/
             The past century has been an entire chaos for mankind and sadly our generation is becoming worse. This is partly because status quo has suffered greatly due to man's endless struggle to find definitive answers to all questions that puzzle the mind including gender inequality and the means to equate the rights of males a d females.
         Status quo is now disabled,  as all its hinges has been disjointed by curiosity as it is been plagued by religion,  culture,  revolutions and of course gender equality. Right now,  it is no news that like culture,  vender has been plagued by diversity in the past decade and while various sectors advocate for unity in diversity,  gender has strived to make its voice heard in this dialogue.
        Question is,  can this double sided table be levelled?  The HeforShe campaign/movement started in newyork city in september 2014  by the United Nations. Its aim is to bridge the gap creates by gender inequality to  create a better world for both genders to exist in. The rights of females have long been trampled on and HeforSje seems to be the voice of females in a world of chaos through men who wants their female counterparts to be all they we made to be. Gender equality must start from homes with husbands and wives,  fathers and daughters,  mother and sons,  mother and daughters,  brothers and sisters then the mesaage can be spread to small groups and clubs in churches,  schools,  mosques and other gatherings and then the world at large.
    Embedded in a woman is more than a gold mine suppressed by gender inequality. Let us set a stage for the future generation where both male and female equipped with their various rights and privileges and obligations and limitations strive to change their world by helping themselves.
     A woman's tenderness is not weakness and a man's masculinity should not brees violence. The table must be levelled,  the bridge must be crossed.
Join the global movement of HeforShe to create a world where our girls can grow,
Join the HeforShe movement and say no to gender inequality.

Written by:
Nsungo,  precious Ndem
IAAG Volunteer

BREAST IRONING! A traditional killer of the Pinks' brighter tomorrow:LET THE KITCHEN BREAST GROW!

DO YOU KNOW, That  there are a number of unreported harm done against the girl child?.
   There are particular forms of violence against women and girls which are defended on the basis of tradition, culture, religion or superstition.These are referred to as harmful traditional practices which include female genital mutilation,corrective rape,BREAST IRONING, to mention but a few.These practices are harmful because they inflict pains on the girl child, interfere with the health, mental and physical growth of the pink gender,and is thus an undeniable threat to their brighter tommorow.

WHAT IS BREAST IRONING?
Strange and simple as it sounds,it is according to the United Nations,one of the underreported crimes against gender-based violence,targeted against the girl child.
So growing up,I once experienced the breast flattening of my best friend..we were told she looked too small to grow Breasts at the time,and boys would start running after her and she will get pregnant and so they needed to send back the "KITCHEN BREAST"..that's the name they call the first growing little breasts of the girl child in my place..
Funny as it sounds,my best friend went through the painstaking act with those myopic idea of eliminating male attention and hope of a new and better boobs.

BREAST IRONING is a harmful traditional practice that is performed in many countries across West and Central Africa by a mother or elderly woman on a pubescent daughter.It is the use of grinding stones, spatulas,hot stones to iron the breast for the purpose of preventing sexual abuse, Curtailing the beginning of sexual life for girls,and to prevent or reverse breast growth.

This can have dangerous consequences as the use of electric iron to flatten the breast is itself terrific and harmful! On the contrary, it does not prevent girls from becoming sexually active BUT RATHER; causes negative physical effects such as fever, tissue damage, inability to produce breast milk! And although no medical studies of it's effects have taken place, Medical Experts warn it could contribute to the dreaded BREAST CANCER, cysts and interfere with breast feeding later in life as well as, cause damaging psychological effects and can lead to mental health conditions such as depression!...

Wouldn't it be more harmful to fold our arms and damn the consequences?Together we can say No to these harmful practices and say YES to a brighter tommorow of the girl child.

Written by:
Amah Juliet
IAAG Volunteer

The girl child and agriculture

THE GIRL CHILD AND AGRICULTURE: How Investing In Rural Girls Can Aid In Community Development. 

train a boy and you’ve built a man,     train  a girl child and you’ve built up a nation                                                                                                           ~unknown

          Across the globe, only about 39% of the rural girl child gets to secondary school and about 45% of the rural boy child graduates from secondary school. It is alarming that even in the 21st century  many communities do not see the need for the education of the girl child.  In most communities especially in Africa, the girl child is given off early into marriage, hence her dreams of being educated, a career woman and a mighty force to reckon in the labour market is being curtailed if not truncated. 
     The percentage of poverty in rural communities between male and female is in the ratio of 2:5 showing that we have more poor females to males in the society.     
      One of the girl child most urgent need in Africa, some parts of Asia and Europe  is to be recognised for her intricate abilities and also her desire to serve her people. There is a 90% tendency of a girl child allocating her income/earnings to her family and only a 35% of a boy child doing same. This impact multiplies when millions of girls are empowered , creating compounding effects that can reshape an entire community’s economy and national fortune.  If the girl child is given the same opportuinities as her male counterparts e.g land, inputs, financing, governmental and non governmental aids etc, then they will be a high amount of increase in income and less poverty both in the rural and urban sector.   
    One ability that every female possess is the ability to multiply whatever is being given to her. If the rural girl child is allowed to have access to land and other aids for a successful farming system then the problem of poverty will be curtailed to a high extent.   
     It should be noted that agriculture can be both subsistent and commercial and it has been observed that even with some women’s  subsistent  farming, they feed their family and still sell some of the produce to  cater for the monetary need of the family, if such women are been empowered to own a commercial farm, the rate of poverty will reduce and an increase in revenue development will occur.   
   

THE GIRL CHILD AND AGRICULTURE

 Rural girls with little or no access to basic social  amenities including education should be empowered in the agricultural sector as this will not only be of benefit to her but the nation at large, the failure to train one girl child has a consequence of a long lineage of an untrained nation, women and girls are not simply victims, their loss is an entire country’s loss and their success  the glory of an entire nation, the global community can not advance without these key members. If as illiterates and totally dependent, they still try to give out ideas to their male counterparts which aids visible growth and development, how much more when educated and independent?
                            Written by:
                            Nsungo,  Precious Ndem
                             IAAG volunteer