The Changemakers: Power of Women and Girls

Season 2, episode 2

The Changemakers: Power of Women and Girls

While the world today is doing better at ensuring a more gender equality society, women and girls still face many challenges. This International Women’s Day, hear the stories of strong Canadian women from different walks of life, who have made their mark in changing the world they were born into.

Producer: Priyadarshini Mitra

Sound Mix: Chandra Bulucon

Episode Transcript 

[00:00:02.95] Instead of sending weapons, instead of sending tanks to Afghanistan and all these countries which are suffering from terrorism, send books.

[00:00:14.28] I shouldn't be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet, you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you? The world is waking up. And change is coming, whether you like it or not.

[00:00:37.16] These are the voices of Nobel peace prize laureate, Malala Yousafzai and climate change activist Greta Thunberg. Two young women leading global change. Welcome to our special podcast celebrating international women's day, which is on March 8th. I'm your guest host, Rowena Pinto, chief program officer at UNICEF Canada. And I'm filling in for our president and CEO, David Morley, for this special.

[00:01:04.85] [MUSIC PLAYING]

[00:01:15.20] The year was 1995, when world leaders adopted the Beijing declaration and platform for action. Nations committed to advancing gender equality with the vision of ending discrimination against women and girls. 25 years later, girls lives are definitely better. But a joint report by UNICEF, UN women, and Plan International called a new era for girls shows that these gains are uneven across regions and countries, particularly, for adolescent girls.

[00:01:48.92] The good news is that the total number of out of school girls has dropped by 79 million in the last two decades. In fact, girls are now more likely to be in secondary school than boys. Girls born today can expect to live nearly eight years longer on average than girls born in 1995. Yet, violence against women and girls is still common.

[00:02:13.13] In 2016, for example, 70% of trafficking victims globally were women and girls. A shocking one in every 20 girls between the ages of 15 and 19 has been raped. That is 13 million girls. And each year, 12 million girls are married far too young. The world's leaders need to do more to keep their promise to women and girls. Access to education is not enough. We must also change people's behaviors and attitudes towards girls.

[00:02:45.23] As a mother of twin girls who are currently nine, I always felt very blessed. They are each other's best friends. And in a world, where, sometimes, it's not that easy being a little girl, I always knew they had their back up. But this year in grade four, they've been separated into different classes. And one of the girls has come home to let me know that some of her girlfriends are now being mean to her and are excluding her.

[00:03:12.53] These are girls that she's actually grown up with. And so she's very confused and very hurt. My first inclination is to jump in as super mom, and talk to the teacher, and have the teacher talk to the girls. But then I realized, this is probably, unfortunately, just one of the many times, where my children are going to face this kind of behavior. I also have read that in many cases, little girls do exclude others as a form of bullying. So it isn't necessarily something that is very obvious to the outside world.

[00:03:48.02] So instead, I sat them both down and had a conversation with how, sometimes, this is what little girls do to each other. And how we can actually stand up for ourselves in these moments. I also talk to them about how important it is as girls and as women to support each other. So I also looked at my own behavior and how can I better support the women in my workplace. Because we all play a role in really changing the world for girls and women.

[00:04:16.55] The world is home to more than 1.1 billion girls. They have the potential to become the largest generation of female leaders, entrepreneurs, and changemakers the world has ever seen. On today's For Every Child podcast, you will hear from three such changemakers. Canadian women from different walks of life who have made their mark in changing the world they were born into.

[00:04:42.05] In September 2018, students from more than 100 schools in Ontario, Canada, left their classrooms to protest the rollback of sex education and the cutting of indigenous, reconciliation-focused curriculum by the government. They were led by 16-year-old Raine Fischer Quan. Raine, tell us a bit more about your story. What exactly happened?

[00:05:06.26] So I live in Ontario. And the government of Ontario decided to roll back our sexual education curriculum back to a version that was last created in 1998, which didn't include mention of the word consent. It didn't talk about gay marriage. It didn't talk about healthy relationships. It didn't talk about online safety. Basically, these huge swaths of the curriculum were just completely cut.

[00:05:27.68] And then they also made dramatic cuts to the indigenous curriculum so that people wouldn't be learning about the history of indigenous violence in this country or native languages. And people were really upset about that, understandably. Because we live in a country, where a recent study showed that 2/3 of the population of Canada can't define the word, consent. And that's a huge issue. And we're supposed to be one of the most progressive countries in the world.

[00:05:56.03] So young people really led a charge here. And me and some young activists that I worked with started this movement called, we the students do not consent. And we started a walkout, which was something that we had never really seen before. And it got so huge and we had tens of thousands of students walking out of schools in unison to protest the education cuts.

[00:06:16.52] And at the time, it was the largest student protest in Canada's history. And it worked. We got the sexual education curriculum changed back, which was a huge, huge win for us. Because it was almost more than just about sex ed. I think it was about respect. And it was about our voices being respected as young people. So when we were shown that we could fight for something and we could win, that was huge for young people in this country.

[00:06:41.30] It couldn't have been easy being a young woman leading all those students. Did you face backlash? How has your life been since then?

[00:06:49.46] Absolutely. I think if there's anything that you learn from being a woman online, it's that people hate women online. I was thrust into this into the spotlight very quickly at a really young age much quicker than I think I was prepared for. And when you go from being just a normal 16-year-old girl to being on the front page of the Toronto Star, people get mad at you, especially when you're fighting for something that not a lot of people agree with.

[00:07:22.85] And it was really scary. I got death threats. I got a lot of rape threats. I would Google my name and I would see like grown men talking in forms on the internet about how they wanted to have sex with me. I would-- people found my address. People found my school. I was getting threats all the time. It was terrifying. But I think I learned that it meant I was doing something that was scaring people.

[00:07:48.80] Because when people try that hard to shut you up, it means that what you're saying is important. So it almost motivated me more. And at the same time, I was fighting for consent education. And I was like, clearly, none of these guys learned any of that. I think it almost solidified my point. Made me believe in it more strongly. But I get it to this day, every day on Twitter. And I think it's something that we need to work to put an end to.

[00:08:12.89] Hearing about your experience, I have to ask, is it hard being a young person in Canada now? And does being a young woman make it harder?

[00:08:21.59] Yeah, absolutely. Nobody respects you. It seems like I have always felt before I even opened my mouth, people make a judgment about whether or not they're going to respect me. I have always said that young girls, teenage girls were just as smart and just as capable and, sometimes, more smart and more capable than any adult of talking about education issues, of talking about issues around sex and about our generation.

[00:08:48.74] But nobody listens to us. Everything we say is discounted before we even have the chance to say it. And that's something that I fight really, really hard for. Because I don't think you can build a comprehensive sex education curriculum without the input of teenage girls. I think it's impossible. I think teenage girls are at the forefront of everything right now, every activist movement in the world.

[00:09:10.07] You have people like Greta thunberg, and Emma Gonzalez, and Malala leading these incredible activist movements. And still, nobody's listening to us. And I think that we need to work really, really hard to criticize the way that we think about young girls, specifically, and about how much weight we give their opinions because we have a lot to say. And when you're a young girl, you have an understanding of the world that you can't learn in school because you've been sexualized since before you hit puberty.

[00:09:41.81] You've lived a life of people not listening to you. You lived your life with your body being a political playground, that teaches you things about politics and about the way the world works, that are very hard to genuinely learn in any other way. And I think that teenage girls, specifically, are in a very singular position in their role in the political economy. I think that the breadth of experience that we have, the life experience, can't be replaced. And it has to be listened to when we're talking about gender equality, when we're talking about sexual education. There's no replacement for it.

[00:10:15.98] What is your message for the other young women out there who want to make a mark, but do not know how or where to begin?

[00:10:23.96] I think, something that I always feel the need to remind people is that, especially, right after this protest happened in the news and the media, people were portraying me as this anomaly. They were saying, this teenage girl, she's not like the other ones. She's standing up. She's making her voice heard. Look how smart she is. Look how articulate she is.

[00:10:47.24] And I would get really upset because I'm not an anomaly. All of the things that helped my protest succeed, me being smart and me being articulate and politically aware, those are traits that belong to every teenage girl that I've ever met. And I think it's important to remind people that this is something that anybody can do. I'm not special in any regard. Everybody has the ability to do this. I didn't have any experience. I didn't know what I was doing. I wish I had known what I was doing a little bit more.

[00:11:16.60] You just have to jump in. You find something that you care about. And you have to find something that you care about so much that you feel like you have no other choice but to act. And then you act. And that's something that anybody can do. And it's something that is really important that all of us start doing in order for things to get better.

[00:11:32.05] That is a powerful message, Raine. The change begins with you. And each woman and girl has the potential to achieve that change. Our second guest today, Safia Ibrahim is someone who is doing just that. Though, she contracted polio as a young child in Somalia, she has refused to let that disease limit her life. She is now a leading voice in Canada, working with UNICEF to advocate for vaccine access for children around the world. Welcome, Safia. Could you tell our listeners a bit more about your journey?

[00:12:10.42] I was born in Somalia. And I contracted the polio virus at the age of one as a toddler because my parents did not vaccinate me. So due to their decision , I ended up living with the ramifications of polio. It was not easy being there because I was not able to go to school. And I was treated differently just because I was a girl or a girl with a disability.

[00:12:47.80] So I was told to stay home. And I couldn't play with my friends. I couldn't I didn't even have a chance to make friends, really. So my life was very restricted. And I used to see other girls playing hopscotch or skip rope or other activities that I wanted to join. But I couldn't because I couldn't physically jump myself or I couldn't walk even because I learned to walk when I was six-years-old. It was not easy living with polio. But at the same time, it hurts more because I know that it could have been prevented with vaccines.

[00:13:22.27] And then you and your family moved to Canada.

[00:13:25.18] At the age of eight, the civil war in Somalia broke out. So we were fortunate enough to migrate to Canada. And for the first time, I was able to go to school and see a doctor, regarding my disability. They gave me crutches and a brace. And I was able to walk with them and become more independent. It wasn't easy starting school at the age of eight because all the other children were ahead of me.

[00:13:54.67] They have been attending school since kindergarten. And they knew how to write or read or even the colors. And I didn't even know any of it. On top of that, I didn't know how to speak english. So I was fortunate enough to have teachers that invested a lot of time in me, and on my education, and help me catch up with the other students within our school.

[00:14:21.55] You evidently have faced a lot of obstacles in your life. What kept you motivated?

[00:14:26.23] When I was younger, what kept me motivated was just that me that want to be just like the other children. I wanted to be part of their circle. I wanted to be part of their activities. So I always had that I could do it attitude. And now as an adult, my children are my main motivation because they look up to me.

[00:14:49.99] And when I see them in the mornings, I know they expect me to be there and available. And I don't want them to feel like their mom is less of a mom than the other mothers. So I put on that great happy face, exciting face that they love to see, and just go on about my day.

[00:15:15.49] Has being a woman made it more difficult for you or has it been your strength?

[00:15:21.22] Well, I could see both. Because first of all, in Somalia, if you're a girl with a disability, you're basically ran off. Most of the time, they don't even acknowledge you. But in Canada, it was different because there's so much support. And every day, I felt like I was just treated as a child, instead of a girl child.

[00:15:48.04] The same time because I'm a woman and I'm a mom, I'm able to experience all of that. It makes me want to do more and speak up. And say hey, , every child should be treated equal. Children shouldn't be treated differently just because they're a different gender.

[00:16:10.66] Polio eradication is, of course, an issue you have been very vocal and passionate about. Tell us more about what you are doing to play your part towards that goal.

[00:16:21.31] So I had the opportunity to work with UNICEF Canada and Global Citizen, Results Canada, CCIC, Can Watch. I'm working with these organizations that has helped me amplify my message that we need to eradicate polio. And the fact that we're almost there, we're 99.9% there. I feel like just by being here present physically, I feel like I'm making an impact in that way. And at the same time, by telling my story and sharing with everyone is making a difference.

[00:17:00.10] I have also had the opportunity to speak at different events and meet the minister of international development, Karina Gould. And just by being present, I know that she will have-- she'll keep me in the back of her mind at times when she's making the decisions on the polio eradication initiative funding and the global impact that it could have in Canada, could have in the world.

[00:17:32.11] You have two daughters. How is the world they are growing up in as women different from the one you saw?

[00:17:39.19] I am a mother of two daughters. And the world that they are growing up right now is filled with challenges. But compare to the world I grew up in, I feel like they don't have to deal with certain things that I had to experience. For instance, a challenge that I had to face as a child was female genital mutilation. And I know many girls are experiencing that globally right now as well.

[00:18:12.22] And what I am grateful for is the fact that my girls will not be going through that experience. I teach my daughters to be kind and compassionate citizens. And for example, standing up when someone is being mistreated at their school.

[00:18:34.87] Because I feel like with bullying right now that's happening in their society, I feel like that's the only way to combat it is by being caring and compassionate, understanding of other people's needs and wants. And knowing that everyone is different. So that's what I encourage my children to do is just make a difference by caring.

[00:18:58.45] That is such an important message you shared. Every year, 4 million girls are at risk of female genital mutilation. Even though this harmful practice has declined, it continues to disrupt and damage the lives and futures of millions of girls. You are a true survivor, Safia. Your children and many others around the world look to you for inspiration. What is your message to them?

[00:19:25.36] I have been a woman who has been pushed aside. Who has been told that I wasn't capable or I wasn't smart enough or strong enough or even physically able enough to do what I wanted to accomplish in life. But I know that's not true. I know every woman can achieve whatever their heart desires. And I feel like-- I think that with passion and persistence, any woman could persevere any challenges that are placed in their way.

[00:20:01.27] Thank you, Safia for sharing your story. Passion for a Cause took our next guest from Canada all the way to west Africa. Sophie [INAUDIBLE] was born in Quebec City and trained as a journalist. During the Haiti earthquake in 2010, to give voice to the voiceless, she started working in humanitarian aid. Her current assignment is in Cote d'ivoire. Sophie, you are the chief of communications for UNICEF in Cote d'ivoire. What motivates you to do the work you do?

[00:20:32.28] [INAUDIBLE] UNICEF focuses on many things. We're focusing on health, nutrition, access to water, and education, inclusion as well. One of the main challenge here is education. And to me is a cause that is dear to my heart. 1.6 million children do not go to school in Cote d'ivoire. Most of them are girls.

[00:21:09.19] So with my colleague, we really work alongside of the ministry of education of Cote d'ivoire to try to tackle this issue. Here, in Cote d'ivoire, and it's the case in many African countries, the population is really young. Here, 60% of the population is below 25-years-old. Also, there are a lot of children that are out of school. And when I say children, it's primary school children. But a lot of them are high school children. So children below 16-years-old. And most of them are girls.

[00:21:49.75] Girls not only struggle to access schools because the school are too far because parents don't have enough money to take them to school. But girls mainly struggle to stay in school. When they get to high school, a lot of times, they have chores that they have to do at home. And soon, they don't have enough time to come to school.

[00:22:17.68] When a family lives in poverty, they will prioritize boys over girls, if they can't afford to send all children to school. When adolescent girls have their period, a lot of them stop going to school during their periods because there's no toilets at school. There's no water. There's so many barriers to education and challenges. And the government of Canada has funded a really important project here in Cote d'ivoire to try to tackle that in the regions, where girls go to school less, which is in the North of the country and in the West of the country.

[00:23:04.42] It is great to hear that this investment from the government of Canada has the potential to make an impact in changing the lives of adolescent girls in Cote d'ivoire. But there is another challenge that children in the country face with the lack of classrooms. How is this being addressed?

[00:23:21.16] One of the projects we've put together here in Cote d'ivoire is the plastic bricks project. It's a really innovative project that has three objectives. The first objective is, of course, to contribute to clean up the environment by using recycled plastic to produce plastic bricks, so construction material. With these plastic bricks, we build classrooms.

[00:23:48.40] And one of the main issues that children face in Cote d'ivoire to access education is actually to be able to get to a school. Sometimes, schools are too far from where they live or as classrooms are overcrowded. It's not rare that in classrooms, there are more than 100 children. And the last thing we're trying to-- the last issue we're trying to tackle with this project is poverty.

[00:24:23.05] And we know that some of the women that are the most vulnerable here in Cote d'ivoire are plastic collectors. What we need to know is that here in Cote d'ivoire, there is no formal recycling. Most of the recycling is done informally by women. And they don't make much money. And although, we know that when women make more money, they give it to their children. So that's one of the focus of the project as well.

[00:24:53.35] That sounds like a fascinating project. What has been the response from children to these classrooms made of plastic bricks?

[00:25:00.31] As we've built, so far, 27 classrooms made out of these plastic bricks. And in terms of reaction of children, when they get to the new classrooms, first, they've never seen the material. So that's the first reaction surprise. But the first time we moved children to the new classrooms, they were children from pre-school here in Abidjan.

[00:25:28.87] When we move those children to the new classroom made out of plastic bricks, first, the classroom is a lot bigger. It's much brighter. There's a bit of a breeze in it. So it's a lot fresher. But they were so used to be in a small space that when they move to the bigger classroom, they are sat next to each other in the middle of the classroom because they weren't so used to it.

[00:25:57.14] But instantly, what we realize is that the space children learning makes a difference on quality of education. And instantly, the teacher told the children, no, no, no, we're not doing that anymore. We're not sitting next to each other anymore. You stand up and we're going to dance. And she started singing the alphabet and clapping in her hands. And children were dancing. And then started smiling. And instantly, you could see the difference.

[00:26:32.93] Children definitely are quick to adapt. And it's so good to know that those children in Cote d'ivoire have a better, more spacious place to learn now. How do you think the world that these children will grow up in will be different from the one you saw?

[00:26:48.69] I have a seven-years-old daughter. She's here with me in Cote d'ivoire and is a little citizen of the world. She grew up overseas. What is different? To me, the main difference is pollution. It's completely different. When I was younger, you could go to the beach or you would walk in the forest and you would barely see any plastic is on the ground. Now, it's everywhere. It's really an issue, a global issue that we all need to work on to tackle and take drastic measures to do it.

[00:27:31.01] Our plastic bricks project here in Cote d'ivoire is a small piece of solution. But that is not enough. And something needs to be done to make sure she grows up in a world that is cleaner so her and her generation can reach their full potential.

[00:27:52.97] Thank you so much for that, Sophie. It was inspiring hearing from these changemakers. Women who refuse to accept the status quo and found solutions to help change the world around them. 2.5 decades after the Beijing declaration, 2020 offers new challenges and opportunities for an equal world. And girls and women are demanding change.

[00:28:18.50] True equality will only come when girls of all backgrounds, ethnicities, income, and social status levels are safe from violence, free to exercise their rights, and are able to enjoy equal opportunities in life. Let's celebrate the power of their voice and potential, not just today, but every day. From everyone at UNICEF Canada, happy International Women's Day.

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