The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts has many special events happening on this 2013 International Day of Girls.
The first thing we would like to announce is that our Voice against Violence curriculum has now been launched together with UN Women. Today, one of our youth delegates Maria Augustina will be taking over the @un_women twitter feed at 10AM EST. She will be tweeting messages and answering questions for 1 hour which have to do with WAGGGS, IDG and the Voices against violence curriculum.
We are also excited as today we can officially announce that we are partnering with Dove to create a brand new non-formal education programme that will promote body confidence and self-esteem.
WAGGGS and Dove share a mission to help girls fulfil their potential. By bringing together WAGGGS’ non-formal education expertise and our ten million members, and Dove’s success at already reaching 11 million girls with self-esteem activities, our partnership could improve the body-confidence of a generation.
“As one of the voices for girls and young women, the World Association has identified self-esteem and body confidence as issues where we need to raise awareness and make a difference in girls’ lives,” said Mary McPhail, Chief Executive, WAGGGS. “It is fitting that we announce our partnership with Dove on International Day of the Girl. Together we can make a meaningful impact in girls’ lives and empower them to always be unstoppable.”
The partnership between WAGGGS and Dove is a joint commitment to empower girls to reach their full potential in life through initiatives that strengthen body confidence and self-esteem so the way they think they look never holds them back. We aim to reach 3.5 million girls by 2016 with body-confidence activities.
This year we took the theme ‘putting a girl in the lead’ to inspire our member organisations and partners to empower a girl to take the lead in many different projects.
‘Girls’ leadership is a key to a sustainable future and a recipe for fairer societies. I am inviting you today to think about all the leadership opportunities we can offer to girls – invest in girls, empower girls, grow the potential of the whole Millennial generation of girls into a powerful force and a driver of change – I am inviting you today to Put the Girls in the Lead!’ – Nadine El Achy, World Board Chair
WAGGGS will be recognising and joining in with the celebrations our member organisations are holding around the world. These include:
- Canadian Girl Guides are making video submissions of
their girls favourite musician role model
- Australian girl guides, together with other female
NGO’s, is raising awareness about girls and young women leadership in
wider society
- Venezuela Girl Guides’ representatives will speak
during the intervals at a fashion show for girls about girls and young
women's rights
- Girl Guides of Madagascar will be at an event which
will raise public awareness on the reproductive health of adolescents in
which they will distribute sanitary napkins for girls in disadvantaged
neighborhoods. There will be also cultural events on the theme "girls
take the lead”
- A Girl Scout USA is taking over the UN Women Twitter
account
- In Europe Region there will be European Week of Action
for Girls at European Parliament, where representatives from Belgian Girl
guides will take place.
Other ways you can get involved
- Check out the IDG toolkit
- Follow us on twitter using #IDG2013,
#voicesagainstviolence, #freebeingme
- Send your messages to girls around the world at our
Tumblr site
- Add your actionst to our action log
- Follow the UN Women twitter takeover on @un_women at
10:00 AM EST
- Hold a celebration with those around you!
All WAGGGS’ member organisations had the chance to nominate girls to be International Day of the Girl ambassadors. This year there are 20 ambassadors in total who will serve as spokespeople in different events to promote the day of the girl initiatives throughout the year.
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