Celebrating the Day of the African Child

The technical meeting was convened by Enrique Delomonica, the UNICEF Chief of Social Policy and Gender Equality. Noreen Khan, the Gender Specialist in the Division of Policy and Practice at UNICEF New York came to study in country activities, Maryam Abdu, Sumbo Odebode and Charity Ikwueze all participated in the technical meeting.The focus of our […]

The technical meeting was convened by Enrique Delomonica, the UNICEF Chief of Social Policy and Gender Equality. Noreen Khan, the Gender Specialist in the Division of Policy and Practice at UNICEF New York came to study in country activities, Maryam Abdu, Sumbo Odebode and Charity Ikwueze all participated in the technical meeting.
The focus of our discussion was UNICEF’s plan for the celebration of the Day of the African child.  Four years ago, the African Union (AU) declared June 16 the “Day of the African Child” to honour the brave children of the Soweto Uprising of 1976 in Johannesburg, South Africa. This year’s theme is on accelerating joint efforts to end child marriage across the continent.
 To generate awareness on the issue, UNICEF launched a Hausa film titled Zabi Na (My Choice) at CEDDI Plaza Abuja on June 16 2015. The event was attended by stakeholders from all walks of life, development partners, members of the diplomatic core, government officials, the cast of the film, and civil society activists. The film Zabi Na was produced by Dr Zack Amata, the founder and Executive Director of Centre for Change and Community Development with support from John D and Catherine T MacArthur Foundation. The film highlights the benefits of investing in the education of girl children through enrollment and retention in school and giving them the opportunity to achieve their potential. UNICEF in partnership with state governments provide money to parents of needy girls to support their education through a programme of ‘cash transfer’ known as tallafi. Each parent gets 20,000 naira with 5000 naira disbursed quarterly to support their girl child in school. In Sokoto  and Niger states, 10,000 and 5000 girls have benefited from the programme.  The three girl children featured in Zabi Na are from poor families who were hawked to supplement family income. They became beneficiaries of the UNICEF cash transfer. It encouraged them to enroll in school. Sadly, the first girl child Mariya was deprived from benefiting from the programme because her father took the money and spent it. Mariya and her mother were sad. She returned to full time hawking.
The second girl Asabe was also deprived from benefiting from the programme because her mother preferred to use the money to buy her dishes and other household furniture she would need to take to her husband’s house when she gets married. Asabe told her hawker friends that she was not interested in education and her aspiration was to go to ABU, Aure Bautan Ubangiji  (Marriage as an Act of Worship) and not Ahmadu Bello University.
  The third girl child Zuwaira was an orphan and her mother was passionate about educating her daughter. When she collected the cash transfer she used it to buy her books and used subsequent installments to fund her daughter’s schooling requirements. She struggled to see her daughter through secondary school to university level. Zuwaira also continued with her Islamic education. 
Mariya was removed from school and married to a wealthy but illiterate village farmer Alhaji Gundumi. She got pregnant and when she was ready to have her baby  he refused to take her to the hospital reminding her that his own mother never delivered in any hospital. She was delivered by the village traditional birth attendant. After an obstructed labour, she lost the baby and also developed vesico vaginal fistula VVF. Unable to control seepage of urine, stench became her permanent companion. Alhaji Gunduma divorced her. She returned to her parents to live with her disability.
Asabe married a young man in the community who had challenges with substance abuse and whenever he was high on drugs he would beat her and maltreat the children. He later divorced Asabe and she returned to her parents with her four children.
Zuwaira  completed school, and later became a Senator. She returned to her community and set up an initiative to assist needy children with cash support to which she owed her success. Zuwaira helped Mariya and Asabe to return to school convincing them that age is no barrier to learning. She built a nice home for her mother and also became a role model in her community.
The film apart from focusing on the girls also highlighted the role of peers in influencing the behavior of young people and the importance of male involvement, particularly the positive role of fathers in influencing the education of their girl children. One of the fathers, Alhaji Salim who resisted sending his daughters to school and even punished them for doing so changed his mind after seeing Zuwaira’s success and the benefits the community was deriving from the cash transfer grant to support needy girls which she established. He was also influenced by the religious leader (Malam) in his village who told him that education is compulsory for all Muslims and cited verses of the Qur’an to underscore the importance of education.
The film captures varying perspectives on early marriage, a role model like Zuwaira and the lived reality of girl children from poor families, the challenges they face when they are removed from school and married off and the disadvantages of not educating girls. The film shows the negative effects for her health, that of her children, her self esteem, life goals, participation in public life, household decision making and ability to conquer poverty. Research reveals that child marriage affects a staggering number of girls (upwards of 37,000 every day)—and many boys—denying them the right to lead healthy and fulfilling lives. Without concerted effort to raise awareness on the issue, the number of child brides in sub-Saharan Africa is expected to double by 2050! UNICEF supports government efforts to provide equitable access to quality basic education in Nigeria, where 10.5 million children are out of school.