‘Take Time To Become Leaders’

Reproductive health continues to be one of the biggest issues of our time. Many of the girls start their journey to poverty at a very early age. It is usually because of unmet needs of reproductive health, and lack of access to services and in some cases, the challenge of reproductive rights that are violated: it could be rape and denial of services, therefore at an early age, they end up having children they cannot afford to look after. And as soon as that happens, they have signed a contract with poverty forever. They have also introduced poverty in the next generation, as it is most likely that the children they have will also be poor.

At another level is the prevalence of early marriages, one of the biggest challenges we have in the 21st century. They are sanctioned by parents and traditional leaders and we have inadequate response and action by governments. Many of the children who have early marriages are never going to take full advantage of their potential. A young girl who has the capacity to be a great scientist loses all of it, because at age 12, she is married to a 40-year-old. In many situations, the girls are married off to people they don’t know. So their emotional wellbeing is completely ignored.