Dangoggo Fatima Bakari
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Empowerment is very important for our youth, it is a push to a better future and better opportunities. It is no news that our young adolescent girls are deficient of this empowerment focus, this is focused on the male gender which most perceive as very unfair and has become the basis of the fight for gender equality today, pushing for our girls/women to gain equal access to good opportunities given to the opposite sex.
The consequences of not giving our girls their rights are rather grave. The difference between the empowered and unpowered girl is very clear for all to see and It all starts with education.
An empowered girl is the one that is enrolled in a school to learn how to read and write or at least at a vocation programme where she can learn vocational skills needed to earn a good income. Meanwhile an unpowered girl is left at home to perform menial chores and/or given goods to hawk on the streets where she will most probably be exposed to undesirable circumstances which often leads to sexual abuse and bad influence.
If she were to be in school she would be safer and under the protection and guidance of her teachers.
Then follows marriage. When a young girl starts to blossom and her femininity begins to show, she is thrown into marriage before she even understands what marriage truly means, because it is beyond just a man and woman living under the same roof. This is one of the major causes of the high number of divorce cases today. Most of these girls are married off at the young ages of 14-15, they haven’t any idea how to keep a home or raise children properly, they, still children themselves, find it hard to settle any problem with their husbands and befor they know whats going on, they’re sent packing back to their parents’ home and are named incompetent by family and the society. This unsavoury situation can easily be avoided if parents give these young girls a few more years to mature both physically and psychologically in order to excel in the next chapters of their lives.
Early marriage is one of the major things killing our girls. Pregnancy at that age can cause huge health complications as a result of their underdeveloped reproductive systems being used before it’s time. Pregnancy poses many challenges for young girls like the suppression of the immune system. There is an increased risk of acquiring diseases that are harmful not only to them but to their unborn babies. Diseases such as malaria, HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis E, Tuberculosis and so on. This is even worse when these girls don’t have access to adequate health services.
“In Africa there about 200,000 new-born deaths each year as a result of malaria in pregnancy and 30 million women in areas infected with malaria become pregnant each year.
Pregnant women in the second or third trimester are more likely to experience liver failure when they contract Hepatitis E and at this point, there is a fatality rate as high as 25 percent. An epidemic in India resulted in high mortality rates of pregnant women.
Globally, HIV/AIDS is the leading cause of death among women between the ages of 15-24, the age women are most likely to become pregnant. Women are twice as likely as men to contract the virus.
Tuberculosis is 10 times more likely to infect pregnant women who test positive for HIV. According to the WHO, every year about 700,000 women die from tuberculosis, and more than three million women contract the disease. Tuberculosis is the third leading cause of death among women between the ages 15-44. When pregnant, the disease is harder to diagnose since the symptoms (fatigue, tiredness, and shortness of breath) are similar to typical symptoms of pregnancy.” more
Young girls are very vulnerable because their pelvic bones are not ready for child bearing and delivery. They have a high 88% risk of visco-vaginal fistula(VVF); an abnormal connection between two hollow organs. Once a Fistula is formed, urinary inconsistence and peroneal nerve palsy (also known as Zenker’s paralysis) is a paralysis on common fibular nerve that affects patient’s ability to lift the foot at the ankle which usually leads to neuromuscular disorder, peroneal nerve injury, or foot drop which can be symptoms of more serious disorders such as nerve compression) and may lead to humiliation, ostracism and resultant depression. Unless the Fistula is repaired surgically, these girls have limited chances of living a normal life and bearing children.
This is unfair for anyone to have to go through being as it could have easily been avoided.
We can see how early marriage and thus early pregnancy could result in death partly because the young mothers are unhealthy, immature and lack access to social and reproductive services.
Early marriage destroys a girl’s childhood, creates bad physical and psychological health risks and basically robs her of her rights. She has no education ergo won’t get a good job and income which often leads to a very insecure old age.
This is the consequence of not giving our girls the chance to be more than just housekeepers and baby machines. It is time we break this cycle that has been going on for decades. Keeping girls in schools not only help protect them from pregnancy, illness and death, it also enhances their earning potential and socioeconomic status. Empowered girls can contribute to the health and welfare of their family, they can access decent jobs and make a good income. They’d marry at the right age to men of their choice which will result in healthy pregnancies, ensuring good health for both mother and child. They would have a chance to wealth creation and growing investments which will lead to a very secured old age.
If we are to change the future of our girls for the better, we need to start making a difference today.
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