GEORGETOWN, Guyana – On Wednesday, July 25, 2012, UNiTE, the UN Secretary General’s campaign to end violence against women proclaimed that the twenty-fifth day of every month would be dubbed Orange Day and it would be used to bring attention to preventing and ending what has been dubbed ‘the Global scourge’ ‒ violence against women and girls. The UNiTE campaign felt that once a year was not sufficient to highlight this growing problem and its Global Youth Network initiates activities such as encouraging the wearing of the colour orange.
Yesterday was Orange Day and in support of the upcoming International Day of the Girl Child, which will be observed on October 11, its theme was ‘Safe Schools for Girls’. This takes cognisance of the fact that in many places in the world, girls are still being denied an education. Pakistani teenager Malala Yousafzai who was shot in the head by the Taliban in her country some 11 months ago for defying their edict and attending school anyhow, has since become the poster child for education of girls. Malala survived the attack and emerged even more determined to ensure that girls attend school. A fierce advocate of education, she and other youth leaders lobbied world leaders attending the UN General Assembly in New York to find US$175 million to educate Syrian children currently displaced by the violence there. Also displaced by violence (she is being educated in England as it is not safe for her in Pakistan) she is in the process of launching a fund which will focus on investing in high quality education for girls, especially in disadvantaged communities around the world.
