A Girl of Purpose is a very special program that Purpose Rwanda is gladly holding every Friday.
It’s a program mainly designed to remind young girls out there that the value of being a girl is golden and also to tell girls that have made various mistakes or poor choices in their lives that there is always another second chance to do right.
A Girl of Purpose looks at helping victims of pre-marital sex and advocate against it for the group that has not yet gotten involved.
On this day, young women discussed two questions with the help of their term leader, a 19-year-old young woman. The first reads as follows:
Why are parents so concerned about their young female children today?
How parents valued their girls in African tradition has not changed at all today. Girls in the past were seen as a source of wealth, unlike today where they are seen as participants who should influence the nation’s socio-economic and political development. As the saying goes, “Educate a woman and educate a nation.” Some of the ideas during the discussion are as follows:
- Parents are insecure of their girls, because they fear that their girls will not be able to utilize the available resources given to them by the government. The fear is that their future is at stake because of exposure to sexual predators. Some men take advantage of the young ladies as sexual objects; they end up becoming pregnant, drop out of school, get HIV/ADS, or become single mothers, and their prospects to give contribution to national development is in danger.
- Today’s parents are so busy that they don’t find enough time for their girls and they fear that this will cause a conflict between them and their girls and thus leaving them in the hands of others and their growth is affected.
- In normal senses, girls are more exposed and vulnerable to threats than boys. This causes parents to worry and want to protect their female children today.
- Today, the available technology usage and the negative competition arising among the young women today leaves their parents in a state of worry. The competition is not about having purposes in life, but it is because those who pretend to be supporting them at the expense of sexual exploitation confuse many girls. This must stop.
Attach as many photos of this session as possible together with videos
How will A Girl of Purpose contribute to the development of her country, Rwanda?
The discussion was very interesting. A few of the ideas during the discussion are as outlined:
Girl of Purpose is a project established to create and awaken girls about their values in the society. Its contributions include three aspects of the country’s development: socially, economically, and politically. Here are some of the answers the young women shared with us.
- The project will awaken the girl’s inner potentials and dreams and through this, impacted females will stand up and work for the country and their communities resulting in national development.
- This project is looking at encouraging and preventing pre-marital sex among the young women in Rwanda and through this, some nationwide problems will be solved such as high infant mortality rates and high population growth among others thus leading to national development.
- Girl empowerment, this project is looking at establishing a strong sense of empowerment and self-confidence and control among the young girls/women today. We as girls have our own rights and steps to take in the development of ourselves.
A girl of purpose believes that there is a huge space for the young girls out there to play a role in the development of Rwanda. We believe in awakening girls to the old values that describe a true African woman through discouraging pre-marital sex.