October 11, 2025

Day 11 Ultimate Blog Challenge

From Breast Cancer Awareness to another awareness that is near and dear to my heart.

 International Day of The Girl - This year's theme

The girl I am, the change I lead: Girls on the front-lines of crisis

A timely and powerful statement in light of all the things going on around the world today.

On December 19,2011 The United Nations declared October 11 to be  International Day of the Girl Child, a.k.a.Day of the Girl, or Girls day  is a date set aside annually to recognizing the rights & unique challenges of girls based on gender. 

International Day of the Girl is both a celebration and a call to action. It’s a moment to pause and reflect, to recognize how far we have come, and how far we still have to go to create a world where every girl can learn, lead, and live freely.

This day shines a light on the barriers that still stand in the way:

• Access to education
• Unwanted child marriages
• Gender-based biases
• Medical & Nutrition access

It’s about rewinding the tired old stories that tell girls what they can’t do, recording and amplifying new stories focusing on what they can do!

It’s about claiming space, ceilings, and changing the story for the next generation of strong girls and confident leaders.

It is about giving them the tools and knowledge to be able to achieve their dreams. Or simply be able to dream them in the first place. 

International Day of the girl is near and dear to me personally, firstly because I am a mom of 3 daughters.  Each of them unique, each of them strong, each of them grown and thriving, each of them a huge blessing in my life. 

However it is through an opportunity I had in the fall of  2011 that changed my life. It was when I travelled to Niger, West Africa and walked the orange sands of the Sahel region that my eyes were opened and my heart was changed. 

I was part of a team from western Canada,to work with a group of young women at a local girls school, and teach them to sew. These bright girls taught me more about determination, creativity, willingness to learn, patients - (I had 0 language skills) and true JOY  - than I taught them about sewing I am certain. 

Their sewing machines were hand turned - NO electricity, NO treadle like grandma.  The girls fed fabric under the needle with their left hands while skillfully turning the wheel with their right that moved the needle up and down.It was much harder than it sounds, I tried and failed.  Despite the communication challenges we managed to learn from each other.  We laughed a lot, we gestured wildly, we danced, we sang, and I loved every minute of it and each one of those girls has a special place in my heart.  

I came home feeling conflicted, asking myself questions that truly have no answers, such as why me, why I was I born to life of privilege in North America?  Why does my corner of the world have it so easy by comparison?  Weather wise, life options, food availability - Honestly coming home was a bit of culture shock.  Eventually the question I started asking was what's next? What can I do from home, that will continue to benefit the girls?   What do I need to learn?  

Life can truly be random sometimes, I stumbled upon a booth at a small state fair -and I stopped to look and asked questions, and I had my answer -  Enter Days for Girls into my life.  Days for Girls was educating women on the fact that the number one reason girls struggle to stay in school  to get a decent education in many parts of the world is because every month they miss up to 4 days of school.  4 days x 12 months = 48 days of missed school  approximately 1.5 months.  It is impossible to catch up when you miss that much.  Add to that their help was needed at home, cooking, cleaning, collecting water or fire wood, and that was seen as more important for the girls than school.

Why do they miss that many days?  It is because they lack proper feminine hygiene products, meaning that during their periods they have to stay home until their period passes. From my North American POV that was hard to fathom, I could walk into my local walmart or grocery store and have 142 options...  YES I COUNTED... wings, without wings, Jr, heavy, regular, overnight, long, extra long, cardboard applicators, no applicators... you get the picture.  We had an over abundance of options, while often cardboard was the best option for our sisters in other countries. 

Days for girls was  providing solutions.  Sustainable cloth pads, that were being sewn by volunteers in the US & Canada then being sent to countries where they were needed through church mission trips, humanitarian aid trips, or NGO requests.  With the eventual goal of having  1 Million Days for girls kits sent out world wide, with chapters in locations around the world providing education on female health, sanitation, as well as sewing lessons so that they provide sustainable cloth pads to their local communities.  Empowering women, building each other up and allowing girls to stay in school.

When I learned all of this I was hooked.  I learned how to put the DFG kits together, sew the pads - connected with a volunteer chapter in Canada and eventually became a founding member of the Days for Girls Canada Board of Directors. 1000's of kits sent meant that 1000's of girls lives were changed, doors were opened, all because they were able to stay in school. 

I no longer work with Days for Girls, but I will forever share the story of the work that they continue to do because it matters.  Education matters, life skills matter, personal health matters, having choices matters, each girl matters,  It is more than just a few days of school that has been reclaimed, it is living example of the African proverb,

“If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.”

International Day of the Girl is a reminder that if we work hard together we can go far and truly change the world.  One story at a time.  One person can make a difference, I know that first hand, I came back changed because I went.  

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