National Girl Child Day

"Investment in the education of girls may well be the highest-return investment available in the developing world."

-Lawrence Summers, then Vice-President of the World Bank, 1992

The future of Bangladesh resides in the future of its girls. As long as girls are treated as inferior and less valuable than boys, malnutrition will remain high and Bangladesh will suffer impaired economic growth. "National Girl Child Day" is a national strategy to cause a breakthrough in the status of girls in Bangladeshi society.

September 30 each year has been declared National Girl Child Day. National Girl Child Day has been chosen as one day of the annual Children’s Rights Week.

Actions are being organised at both the national and local levels.

 

National level

Local level

A unified campaign. The Hunger Project is working with a broad network of government ministries, NGOs, women's organisations, schools, colleges and the media to awaken people across the nation to the critical importance of providing better health, education and nutrition to girls as the highest leverage investment for the future of the country. Rallies and marches. In Dhaka, as well as in remote rural areas, organisations rally their constituency to hold teach-ins and marches in support of National Girl Child Day. Media coverage. National Girl Child day generates powerful media coverage in newspaper, television and radio - educating the public on the critical importance of this issue.

A crucial element of the National Girl Day Strategy is to fully involve Bangladesh’s rural population—the vast majority of the country’s people. Thana-level celebrations of National Girl Child Day are  organised with people’s associations, NGOs, and local government so that all people in the nation have the opportunity to participate. National Girl Child Day essay contests are held in schools across the country. Both boys and girls win prizes for writing about the importance of better health and education for girls in Bangladeshi society. Hunger Project volunteers take a leadership role to ensure that the National Girl Child Day celebrations reach out to villagers in every district of the country.