Save A Girl Child ... Because they are special

Some Important Facts:

  • Of the more than 110 million children not in school, approximately 60 per cent are girls.
  • By age 18, girls have received an average of 4.4 years less education than boys.
  • World-wide of the more than 130 million primary school age children not enrolled in school, nearly 60% are girls.
  • In some countries in sub-Saharan Africa, adolescent girls have HIV rates up to five times higher than adolescent boys.
  • Pregnancies and childbirth-related health problems take the lives of nearly 146,000 teenage girls each year.
  • In sub-Saharan Africa, a woman faces a 1 in 13 chance of dying in childbirth. In Western Europe, the risk is 1 in 3,200.
  • At least one in three girls and women worldwide has been beaten or sexually abused in her lifetime.
  • An estimated 450 million adult women in developing countries are stunted, a direct result of malnutrition in early life.
  • Two million girls and women are subjected to female genital mutilation every year.

Key Areas of Improvement:

Legal/ Social: Despite the progress in efforts to enable girls to fully enjoy their rights, there is still a great deal of work to be done in order to achieve the objective. There are still many unresolved issues of discrimination, inequality, neglect, exploitation and violence against girls and women.
Educational: Nothing has as great an impact on children and especially girls as a quality education. Per UNICEF - 'A 10-percentage-point increase in girls' primary enrollment can be expected to decrease infant mortality by 4.1 deaths per 1,000, and a similar rise in girls' secondary enrollment by another 5.6 deaths per 1,000."
Health/ Physical: HIV/AIDS, the gravest challenge human beings face at the moment, complicates the problem as girls are at even greater danger than boys the same age of being infected.