“I am a Girl child and i am not less than i am”...Growing up as a girl child my mom would always make repeat these words. She would say to me “Do not let anyone make you feel less than you are. This made me the woman i am today and i have refused to settle for less than i deserve. We live in a world where they would tell you school is not important for a girl child yet they ask for a female doctor to attend to their wives when she is about to deliver. This believes that women are inferior to men has taken a negative impact on our young ones that they feel the height of success they can attain is having a good home and a succesful career. They believe their husbands are the only ones entitled to own properties and investment. In our homes today women are considered not eligible to inherit properties from their parents for reasons yet to be justified. A few years back i worked at a firm and i felt like i was been overlooked for promotion even though i was due for one simply because i was a “Girl Child”. I guess my boss was one of those who had that believe that women can not handle some certain task. I felt really bad when i comfronted him about it and he said it to my face that it would be too much of a task for me to handle. I couldnt stay a minute longer in such firm so i had to quit not because the pay i got was not good enough but because i couldnt work in such an environment with so much negative vibes. I later got a job that didnt pay so much as the one i left but atleast i left with my well nourished self esteem and i work with people who knew i mattered not just to the firm but to the society. I dont know who gets to read this but just like my mom i want you to know that been a girl child doesnt and shouldnt make you feel less than you are. My neighbour couldnt afford to send her daughter to school and asked her to go learn a skill and the little girl said she would love to be a mechanic. The mother refused because just like every other persons she felt this was a skill meant for men alone but seeing her reluctance to give in to her daughter i had a word with her and she consented. “aunty mecho” just like she has been popularly known for in that area has actually become the bread winner of her home and one morning i got a shock when the mother invited me to the grand opening of her daughter’s workshop. She thanked me for opening her eyes to see the light the gushed out from the potentials of her young daughter which out of ignorance might have died like every other light a girl child carries.
