Child Rights Foundation

Speak in such a way that others love listening to you. Listen in such a way that others love speaking to you.

2024 International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Ge***al Mutilation

February 6th marks the International Day of Zero Tolerance for Female Ge***al Mutilation. On this day, we stand united against the harmful practice of FGM and honour the progress made to end it, while recognizing the work still left to be done.

FGM comprises all procedures involving the partial or total removal of external female ge***alia or other injury to female ge***al organs for non-medical reasons. It is a violation of human rights that denies women and girls their dignity and causes long-term physical, psychological and emotional trauma. At least, over 200 million girls and women alive today have been subjected to FGM in over 30 countries where it is concentrated.

The international community agreed to observe the International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM since 2003, as part of worldwide efforts to eradicate this harmful practice that has no health benefits and only causes harm. We have made significant strides - over the last decade, prevalence rates of FGM have declined, and more countries have outlawed the practice.

However, FGM remains persistent in many places. Much work remains to be done to change social norms, empower women and girls, improve enforcement of laws, and provide support to survivors. On this day, let us reflect on the progress made, and renew our commitment to a world free from FGM. A world where the rights, health and integrity of women and girls are respected. A world united to uphold the human rights of all people.



Join the Effective Parenting Channel on Whatsapp via: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaBxmX3B4hdMGeantM3I/121

Follow the EFFECTIVE PARENTING channel on WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaBxmX3B4hdMGeantM3I

Welcome to our dedicated parenting channel! We understand the joys and challenges of raising children and we are here to support and guide you every step of the way. Join our community of parents and intending parents as we share effective parenting tips, nurturing techniques and expert advice to help you create a loving and enriching environment for your children. From pregnancy to toddler-hood and beyond, we are here to provide you with valuable insights, practical strategies and evidence-based approaches to help you navigate the beautiful journey of parenthood.
Together, let's nurture happy, confident and resilient children. Join us today and discover the power of positive parenting!

whatsapp.com

We cannot always build the future for our children, but we can always build our children for the future.

https://naijaradio.ng/the-rights-of-the-child-in-the-digital-environment/

“The Rights of the Child in the Digital Environment.” – Naija Radio The 2023 International Day of the African Child has arrived with the theme: "The Rights of the Child in the Digital Environment." This year, it is more importan

It’s easy for parents to say that their teenage children and young adults don’t like spending time with their parents.

But the real question is, as parents, do you spend quality time with your children, doing things that you both enjoy?

Dear friends and family..

It is the final stage...

Kindly click the link and nominate Ebenezer Semasa Ogun as one of the 50 Influential Youths in Ajegunle...

Just type I vote Ebenezer Semasa Ogun as a dedicated humanitarian.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=627043885572721&id=108113134132468&sfnsn=scwspmo

Together We Can Bring This Award Home.

Thank you in advance...

Once upon a time…

There was a girl who set out into the world daring to believe in her own equality, in her own freedom.

She has lived in every time and place and class. She radiates all around. She is the face of nearly four billion human beings who share this planet. Her quest has helped drive all of humankind’s great struggles of emancipation, yet She has been marginalized and erased from those histories.

Her story is still being written… and Her time is now. "Our Time is Now—Our Rights, Our Future"

The Girl Child has come a long, long way. Yet, like no other group or tribe on this planet, She occupies a dangerously low social status — “the least of these” in a vast and historic hierarchy of being — as She struggles to find her way through centuries upon centuries of ancient traditions, beliefs, and norms that have defined Her more as a family “asset” than as a full human being.

Well into the twenty-first century, Her body and very being are still caught in a tenuous tug-of-war between the supremacy systems of centuries past and the yet-to-be fulfilled ideals of what it means to be and live as a free person. As our global family is undergoing a long overdue reckoning around the racial legacy of slavery, our female ancestors cry from the grave !

Who Is the Girl Child? What do we want for Her life journey? What navigation rules have made ours a “man’s world” and not Hers? What needs to change so our world’s daughters, and their daughter’s daughters, are not the world’s “least of these”? A girl-child is God's opinion that life should go on.

Maybe you know Her? She is your daughter. She is your sister. She is your mother, your aunt, your grandmother, your friend, your colleague. She is you. She is the woman in the girl, the girl in the woman. She is free of and undefined by centuries upon centuries of diminishing ideology, theology, and traditions that treat being born female as lesser than, unclean, inferior, meant for submission, a tool for pleasure, the cause of evil in the world. As not meant to grow into the full human agency and power of adulthood.

She is the free spirit within each of us that comes into the world not knowing any of these rules, roles, and codes that await and define Her path. She is that scrappy voice within that presumes an equal place in the banquet of Life.

She is both a me and a we. She sees self in the other. And the other in Herself. She is part of a movement that spans centuries, one girl, one woman standing on the shoulders of another. She knows that her own freedom is bound up in the plight of others. A girl is whole by all means, not a toy by any means, underneath her hair and makeup, there is a sign that says "Handle With Care"

The descendants of Eve are scattered across time and place yet are climbing the same mountain of injustice. She has collectively been defined from the outside, but another truth has been arising from within.

The train has left the station, the butterfly is breaking out of its cocoon, the genie has left the patriarchal bottle and cannot be put back in…

The truth of Her being – the free Girl Spirit – is rising up to tell Her story. From womb to tomb, She is telling Her truth to the world: this man’s world has created a legacy of harm that has become normal but is not okay. Her gaze says to the john, the pimp, the master of the house, “You do not own me”… And to the pastor, the priest, the rabbi, the imam, and all those who are the guardians of traditions: “How could this be? Maybe, just maybe, we’ve got something wrong?”

She is leading us to another world that is not only possible but is on Her way… for such a time as this.

She is the author of Her own story. The captain of Her own ship. The Girl Child is the feminine face of God, which has a fresh new start in each baby girl born into the world. She comes into the world knowing things…

She is a force of nature that comes into the world saying: “Watch me grow! I can do this!”

Her voice is essential to our progress as a human family and our shared liberation from ancient and interlocking oppressions. She is bravely climbing every mountain in her path, saying to the world, “I am more than what this edifice of traditions has said I am. I am not a passive recipient of traditions – I am part of recreating them.” I help to bring to life.

She knows there is another way to be human that can accept differences without elevating one over the other.

She is a sister who loves her brothers. Like them, she wants to play. And go to school. And be fully valued and treasured. And grow up to spread her wings to fly, to explore and chart her course freely in the world.

The playground of life, though, is still far from level. The rules of the game are still stacked against Her. Her climb today is way too steep, way too treacherous. Traditions continue to clip her wings and excise parts of her humanity calling this “holy.” Her basic human rights are still frighteningly tenuous and prone to regression and backlash.

But the Girl Child is strong, She is curious. What She wants and deserves more than anything is a childhood free of harm and external definition to be and become who she truly is. This uphill climb is hers to take. A girl-child is wonderful, she is graceful, she has compassion and concern for fellow beings. She grows up to become caretaker of the home, family and society. She should be appreciated, admired and respected.

She is not accepting yesterday’s tired old answers. She is spreading Her wings. She does not need anyone to “empower” her but rather to not disempower her.

She is not alone on Her long walk to freedom. It is also mine. It is yours. None of us is free until we all are. Her chains are ours as her human family. She wants to be free from all forms of child abuse such as child labour, child marriage and child abandonment.

Freedom is a sacred trust given to all human beings. It is the air our souls need to breathe, to be, to become.

Freedom is indivisible. It cannot be stratified. If it is not expanding, it will regress.

Freedom requires us to be free enough within our own hearts and minds to question what isn’t working.

She wants to be educated because an educated girl-child grows into a literate woman who has a greater chance of breaking the cycle of poverty, being more productive, and boosting the standard of living for herself, her children and family, as well as the society at large. The girl child is worth far more than we can ever imagine

And on the International Day of the Girl Child, I stand with the global community to support girls' progress everywhere. Let girls be girls.

Ebenezer Semasa Ogun ~I_am_ESO
Child Rights Researcher

Hopefully all “different” children find adults capable of welcoming them for who they are and not for what they lack.

*International Day of Education*

The International Day of Education 2022 is celebrated under the theme “Changing Course, Transforming Education.” This year's commemoration aims to showcase the most important transformations that have to be nurtured to realize everyone’s fundamental right to education and build a more sustainable, inclusive and peaceful futures.

On 3 December 2018, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution (resolution 73/25) proclaiming 24 January as International Day of Education, in celebration of the role of education for peace and development.

The right to education is enshrined in article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The declaration calls for free and compulsory elementary education. The Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted in 1989, goes further to stipulate that countries shall make higher education accessible to all. When it adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in September 2015, the international community recognized that education is essential for the success of all 17 of its goals.

Sustainable Development Goal 4, in particular, aims to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all” by 2030.

International Day of Education 2022 aims to generate debate around how to strengthen education as a public endeavour and common good, how to steer the digital transformation, support teachers, safeguard the planet and unlock the potential in every person to contribute to collective well-being and our shared home.

Together We Can