Teen campaigners push for girls’ rights

Two members of Plan’s Children’s Advisory Panel were lucky enough to be selected to go to an international debate on gender in Berlin this February. 

Alia Chebib (16) and Kurtis Gray (14) spent a week with young people from different parts of the globe – Burkina Faso, Colombia, Egypt, Germany, India, Norway and Paraguay – sharing their experiences of what it’s like to be a girl or boy in their countries and coming up with an ideal world without any gender discrimination. 

After three hard days of debating and teamwork, they came up with their “ideal global village” and presented this and their views to a member of the European Parliament as well as other influential adults.

Kurtis told us, “Our ideal world is the ideal global village we made. We called it a village because a village is so small that everyone needs to talk to each other, so we want the whole world to be like a village. Everyone in it is happy, equal and there is no pressure on anyone to be a certain way, especially not because they are a boy or a girl”. 

The youth spent three days sharing ideas, creating artwork of their ideal world, and writing down their personal experiences to present at a two-day public symposium. They came up with recommendations for dealing with three areas: gender and violence, gender and education and gender and poverty. 

“Even though we spoke different languages, we found other ways to communicate with each other.”

At the end of the week Kurtis and Alia reflected on what they learned and said, “Gender equality can’t be reached overnight. It’s a massive goal. People already know about discrimination but what it will take now is for everyone to act and do something about it. 

“Women shouldn’t be denied their rights just because of old traditions and a man shouldn’t be forced to be a certain way just because he’s a man. If we can get rid of these barriers, then we can start moving forward.”