Because I am a Girl Blog

Tired of Justin Bieber?  Or just feel like reading about something else?  Check out Hardly Magazine, the latest Canadian girls magazine to hit the shelves.

I was checking out their site and loved the article Bring It, about a group of Canadian gymnasts from Vancouver who are both teenage girls and elite athletes.  The subtitle sums it up: who wants to be a regular teenager when you can be the best?  These are definitely girls that rock.  And reading it will probably help you to get your gymnastic fix while you wait for Make It or Break It to start again on Sept 15 (love that show!).  It shows that when you do something at this level, you become wise beyond your years:  ”Gymnastics helps with focus, concentration, preparation. It gives you a lot of practice for everyday life,” says 14-year-old Christina Marr.

Or, you can visit their Screening Room and check out films by three girls in Grade 10 at Etobicoke School of the Arts.

Hardly has sections on Life, Arts, Style, Beauty and Contests (if you’re feeling lucky), and not a picture of Justin Bieber to be seen!

Other Canadian girls magazines that we love: Girls Can Do Anything Mag and Faze Magazine.

Labour Day is around the corner and I’m chomping at the bit to get back to school.  I love brand new school supplies, fall outfits, seeing old friends again and sharing stories of summer!  At Because I am a Girl we talk a lot about how education makes a difference in the lives of girls, but sometimes that’s hard to imagine when you’re bogged down with homework, deadlines, and lunchtime drama.

This video does an awesome job of showing how education can make a big difference in the lives of girls as it traces the lives of two girls born on the same day, one that has access to school and the other that doesn’t.  Its short and good, so check it out!

We know that by investing in girls and their education, we can help to eliminate poverty and create a brighter future for the world.

There are so many ways for you to get involved in supporting girls!

Forty-seven years ago tomorrow Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous “I have a dream” speech where he spoke about ending discrimination. He told the world,

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

We have a dream like that too: A dream where the world’s children will not be judged by their sex or gender, but their rights as human beings.

All of us as girls have individual dreams as well…just this week Madison over on the Because I am a Girl Facebook Page told us about her dream to become a country music singer.

I find that its sometimes hard to say those dreams out loud, because what if someone laughs or tells you that you can’t do it. But, if Madison and Martin Luther King, Jr could do it so can I:

My big dreams are for equality and justice, and my dreams for me are getting my PhD, seeing as much of the world as I can, and living happily ever after (I know it sounds like a mega cliche, but I’m totally serious about that one).

What are your dreams? What stand in your way? And has anyone ever told you that you can’t achieve them?

(photo credit: blatantnews.com)

Every year, once a year, on October 15, bloggers around the world unite to focus the world’s attention on one issue. Last year, 13,606 bloggers from 156 countries took part in Blog Action Day to start a conversation about Climate Change.

Leading up to Blog Action Day 2010, there are 6 topics on the table: water, human trafficking, sustainable food, hunger, oceans, and women. All these topics are important, and most of them are in some way linked to the health and wellbeing of girls around the world.  And its up to you to vote for this year’s topic.

As girl campaigners, we blog about women and girls on a weekly basis, and many of you are listening and acting. Now imagine if on one day in October, THOUSANDS of bloggers were talking about girls issues, what it means to be a girl, and what girls are doing to change the world?

If you want to see that happen as much as me, vote here for women to be the topic of this year’s Blog Action Day!

If you’re still feeling Olympic withdrawal after Vancouver’s Winter Games earlier this year, we have good news for you!   As we speak, hundreds of youth from all over the world are competing in the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore. Events include everything from archery, to judo, to triathlon. There are tons of Canadian girls there making us proud, like the girls 3-on-3 basketball team that will compete for the bronze medal later this week.

In this Web 2.0 world, of course, you can watch events and celebrations online…tune in any time.  They’ve also got a great YouTube channel where you can check out event highlights, interviews with athletes, and even wacky sports “advice” from the Youth Guru (watch her get wrestled by an Olympic Champion here!)

Here’s my favourite video from a Canadian girl that rocks, Jazmyne, who is competing in the oh-so-Canadian sport of canoeing:

Jazmyne’s self declared goal of going to the World Championships and the Olympics shows just how tough and committed she is.  First stop: Singapore Youth Olympic Games 2010.  She had a day of rest today, but will be competing tomorrow and hopefully for the gold on Wednesday!  You can also check out her blog here.

Stereotype has it that girls don’t like to get dirty, but Because I am a Girl Celebrity Ambassador and freeride mountain biker Darcy Turenne proves those that still believe it wrong. As the first female to make a living exclusively from freeride mountain biking, Darcy is willing to get her hands a little dirty for her sport, and for girls.

Darcy, who’s 26, has signed on to represent Because I am a Girl because she believes that “investing in the health, leadership, and success of women and girls around the world is a direct investment in a better future”. She’s also supporting girls who rock by hosting this weekend’s See Jane Jump Women’s Mountain Bike Festival this weekend on Vancouver Island. Its the event’s first year and there will be tons of ladies strutting their stuff on two wheels.

You can’t put a price on girls or girl power, but Darcy’s decided that she’s going to raise $10,000 for the Because I am a Girl campaign. If you want to help her out, check out her fundraising page here.

Kick butt this weekend, Darcy! We’re rooting for you…and your cause.

Did you know that tomorrow is World Humanitarian Day? I must admit, I have a general idea of what a humanitarian is — someone famous who helps the world — but I needed to have a closer look at what being a humanitarian actually is. According to thefreedictionary.com, a humanitarian is

“One who is devoted to the promotion of human welfare and the advancement of social reforms; a philanthropist.”

To celebrate World Humanitarian Day, I thought I would introduce you to 10 amazing female humanitarians of our time. They include some royalty, a former first lady, activists, and intellectuals, from all four corners of the planet.

Diana, Princess of Wales
In her life, Diana was known for her compassion and kindness. One of her most well known humanitarian efforts was her support for the International Campaign to Ban Landmines. She was especially concerned with landmines’ effects on children, injuring them long after a conflict is over.

Queen Rania
As the Queen of Jordan, Queen Rania is using her power to be an activist for many causes, especially children, education and community. She’s also a supporter of girls, such as through the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative. And the best part? You can follow her on Twitter or YouTube!

Graça Machel
The only person in the world to have been married to the presidents of two different nations, Graca Machel has put her power to good use. After starting out as a school teacher, she has continued to advocate for women and children throughout her life, including writing the introduction to each of our Because I am a girl reports!

Mother Theresa
Mother Theresa is well known for her commitment to the poor, sick, orphaned and dying in India and around the world. At one point, this included brokering a temporary cease-fire in Israel to evacuate 37 children trapped on the front lines of the conflict. Her greatest humanitarian action is perhaps inspiring thousands of others to follow in her footsteps. She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.

Aung San Suu Kyi
Currently under house arrest in Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi has led the opposition in that country and was denied leadership despite a landslide victory in 1990. As well as being a symbol of the global struggle against oppression, Aung San Suu Kyi continues to be an activist from her home for people struggling to achieve human rights internationally and in Burma.

Rigoberta Menchú Tum
Rigoberta Menchú Tum has been an advocate since her youth, proving that its never to early to start to fight for what you believe in. She is an advocate for indigenous rights in her home of Guatemala and internationally. In 1992, she won the Nobel Peace Prize for her activism, and is currently a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador.

Shirin Ebadi
Shirin Ebadi stands for human rights. Despite threats on her life in her home country of Iran, she has continued her efforts to support democracy and the rights of women, children and refugees. She is the first ever Muslim woman to have received the Nobel Peace Prize which she was awarded in 2003.

Wangari Muta Maathai
First African woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize and first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a Doctorate Degree — two major first for a single person! Wangari Muta Maathai is an advocate for the environment and sustainable development, which she links to democracy and peace. Her approach has been to work for change with her grandchildren in mind!

Louise Arbour
The Canadian on our list! Louise Arbour has a lot to take credit for. She is former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, a former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada and a former Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. Phew, busy schedule! She continues to work for justice and against conflict.

Angelina Jolie
Have you heard of her? When she’s not on your tv screen or the front of People magazine, Angelina Jolie is a committed humanitarian with a focus on children and refugees. She’s a Goodwill Ambassador for the UN High Commission for Refugees which takes her around the world as an advocate.

All these women are famous and well recognized, but as we saw from the definition above, that’s not a pre-requisite for being a humanitarian. If you’re someone “who is devoted to the promotion of human welfare and the advancement of social reforms,” you are a humanitarian too, famous and rich or not.

So tomorrow, on World Humanitarian Day, what are you going to do about it?

When we think about children in war, we most often imagine a young boy with a gun – a child soldier. We rarely think of girls in conflict, but they are equally if not more affected than boys. A few months ago we watched Grace, Milly, Lucy…Child Soldiers as part of the HotDocs film festival and last month the activist bloggers over at Change.org wrote that Girls Can Be Child Soldiers, Too.

According to Graca Machel, former first lady of both Mozambique and South Africa, “there are more than 2 million girls living in countries that are either at risk of, in the midst of, or emerging from armed conflict, but rarely do we hear stories of how they experience war.” She urges us not to see girls’ experience of conflicts just as victims of sexual violence but in several ways:

• sexual violence
• taking on responsibility for whole households
• missing school
• growing up with limited opportunities
• displacement from their homes
• loss of childhood
• early marriage
• giving birth without medical care
• and marginalization from peace processes and reconstruction.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia, a country which recently experienced conflict, adds that women in post-conflict areas are at risk of

• sexual harassment and gender-based violence (even by teachers)
• teenage pregnancies
• school drop out
• prostitution
• and HIV/AIDS

She summarizes by saying “it is a well documented fact that women contribute tremendously to national development but suffer untold miseries particularly during conflict situations which lead them down the poverty trap.”

Plan International has recently produced this video about being a girl In the Shadow of War in Sierra Leone.  Check it out:

I’ll leave you with this quote from a group of children from Afghanistan, where conflict is still a daily reality:

“We don’t want war. We want to feel safe, we are afraid of kidnappers. We want to be able to play without fear, to walk to school without fear.”

We want that for them too, and for children everywhere.

Quotes and information from Machel and Sirleaf taken from the Because I am a Girl Report 2008
(Photo Credit: Bitzi)

I don’t know if you’ve heard about Pepsi Refresh, but its been getting a lot of buzz lately. Pepsi has committed a big chunk of money ($200,000 to be exact) to fund community projects. But instead of deciding themselves who is going to receive the funds, they’re turning that power over to you and me.

I thought I would make it easy on you and find some of the projects that are designed for girls so that you can vote for them. All you have to do is create an account, and then every day you can vote up to 10 times for different projects.

They’re picking the projects with the most votes from each category (Health, Arts & Culture, Food & Shelter, The Planet, Neighbourhoods, and Education) on September 1, so make sure to make your votes count for girls!

• Build girls confidence through drama workshops
• She’s The World- Empowers, Celebrates and Strengthens girls
• Assist Chez Doris that helps homeless and battered women in Montreal
• Scrapbook for Self-Esteem
• Mikazine, collection of voices of French-speaking Canadian girls

This is also a great opportunity to raise money if you want to start a project in your school or community…you can check out how to start an application for the next round of funding here.

Remember Haiti? At the beginning of this year, the crisis following the earthquake in Haiti was all over the news. But now, 7 months later, you only hear the occasional story. Plan was working in Haiti well before the earthquake, and continues to do so, focusing its efforts on children, communities and their families.

Last month Plan published a 6-month update since the earthquake. Find out what’s been happening there, even if Haiti is no longer in the news:

The people of Haiti still need your help.  How to get involved:

• Click here if you’re interested in how you can help or want more information.
• Or, check out interactive videos of Port-au-Prince on PlanYouth.org.
• You can also read the stories of Marie, Jo-Ann, Madeline, Miline and girls in a Haitian camp to learn more about girl power in rebuilding Haiti.