Alliance for Girls Statement on International Day of the Girl Child
For more information or to arrange an interview please contact: Krystele Chavez, Communications Manager krystele@alliance4girls.org
Today, October 11th, marks International Day of the Girl Child, a day dedicated to amplify the voices and rights of girls everywhere. With over 300,000 girls across the Bay Area as part of our movement and a mission of advancing systemic change to achieve equity, Alliance for Girls recognizes how important it is that every girl gets the chance to reach her full potential.“As we celebrate International Day of the Girl Child today, let us re-commit to addressing the inequity and exclusion that prevents girls from thriving,” says Cynthia Nimmo, Alliance for Girls’ Interim Executive Director. “Never has safety been more important than now, at a time when the pandemic has put the physical and psychological safety of girls at risk. Our Uniting Isolated Voices: Girls & Gender Expansive Youth During COVID-19 report found that 66% of girls and gender-expansive youth who completed the survey reported that their stress and anxiety have increased dramatically during the pandemic. We need safety right now—and not just safety in the absence of violence, but radical safety—safety that is led by girls, safety that is led by people of color, and safety that is led by people who have been creating safe spaces in an unsafe world for centuries.”There is much work that needs to be done both here and abroad to better serve the needs of girls. Social media and digital literacy are important pathways for girls to connect. Girls who lack reliable internet connectivity are encountering a systemic barrier to fully engaging with their education, healthcare, support networks, and other key aspects of their lives during COVID-19. As shared in our Radical Visions of Safety report, fostering more understanding and training for both girls and adults can leverage the potential of social media and digital literacy for positive impact and mitigate their negative effects.Empowered, self-confident and successful girls are essential in the development of healthy communities. We will continue to work with our members and partners to uncover and address the inequities that hold back girls—not just today, but beyond.
About Alliance for Girls: Alliance for Girls is a membership-based association developing leadership in the service sector, based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Nationally, we are the largest regional alliance of girl-serving organizations, which now includes +120 organizations and individuals that employ 2,400 people with more than 5,100 volunteers serving more than 300,000 girls across six Bay Area counties.
For more information: Alliance4Girls.org.*“Girls” refers to gender-expansive youth (cis girls, trans girls, non-binary youth, gender non-conforming youth, gender queer youth and any girl-identified youth).