International Youth Day 2015

“In this landmark year, as leaders prepare to adopt a bold new vision for sustainable development, the engagement of youth is more valuable than ever. At this critical moment in history, I call on young people to demand and foster the dramatic progress so urgently needed in our world.”

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon

IHBG invites you to praise youth everyday but especially today, on 12th of August, when we can unite for celebration across the globe  on International Youth Day! This day was endorsed by UN in 1999 after the proposal in the World Conference of Ministers Rosponsible for Youth, Lisbon in 1998

Each year the International Youth Day has a theme and 2015 is all about youth and civic engagement. This topic is very important because in most of the places all over the world young people are either not encouraged or not able to participate in political, economical and social activities. Especially young women.

Young people are energetic and full of ideas and solutions when taken seriously. There are many examples on how young people can contribute to their community and improve life quality to many. One of the brightest examples is Malala Yousafzai that is known worldwide for her work and achievements and she only recently turned 18, Pakistani girl that is not only political and women's right activist but also a proof on what youth is capable of. There are countless other not so famous stories of young people who are improving life of many, fighting poverty and bringing their community towards sustainable development all across the globe. Our task is to create awareness and let young people know that they can be part of a positive change.
The change can be big or it can be small but it is still worth to create it. You can start to build something right here and right now. Just like this blog, few young activists wanted to empower girls and women all over the world to be proud of who they are and they created this blog five years ago and it keeps running, growing and changing because this is what young people do!

Here is a heart touching and inspiration story from South Africa that shows how life can be changed when there is given encouragement and opportunity to a young person.

Inspirational International Youth Day,
Always yours,

IHBG

Friday is the (Inspirational) Movie Night: Doubt (2008)

#inspirationalmovies

To close the little conversation on catholicism and women we've been having, here's a look from the other side. Doubt (John Patrick Shanley, 2008) is a forceful piece on the soft power of women in patriarchal structures and of the power of a personality, of someone convinced that she knows the truth and has to do anything possible to right the wrongdoing.

It is not a coincidence that Meryl Streep is in the center of this movie, offering a story of a school principal trying to make sure that her institution is living according to highest morals. The extraordinary force of the film comes exactly from the clash between her convictions of what's right and wrong and her willingness to ruthlessly purge the ranks of her organization (the catholic church) in case of doubt about someone's adequacy to form part of it.

It's beautifully filmed, Meryl is sublime, and her torment (not for nothing the movie is named Doubt) offers a tale familiar for most doing any activism: you have to deal with unclarity,  doubt, tensions between separating your own bias from the bigger picture.

Friday is the (Inspirational) Movie Night: Temple Grandin (2010)

#inspirationalmovies

Before I go talking about this movie, it's heroine and what makes it inspiration, I have a confession to make. She is not my hero. For me, Temple Grandin is an example of great persistence, success and overcoming. A brilliant scientist that has dedicated all her life to the wrong cause, promoting better slaughter of farm animals instead of really caring for their wellbeing.  

Nevertheless, her story is amazing and that's why this story falls under the inspirational tag. Grandin's life is an example of how with love, understanding and stubborn persistence when everything else fails pretty much everyone has great potential to be developed.

Temple Grandin (2010, Mick Jackson) is based on Grandin's memoirs tracing her path from being a child that the doctors did not expect anything from to becoming an accomplished scientist and autism activist working to ease the experiences of people suffering from autism. So there are several take-away lessons for this blog in particular: (1) there are valuable life lessons hidden even in lives of the people whose accomplishments you don't like, accept it and learn from them, (2) parenting and teaching does wonders, therefore pay attention to how world can be improved by people who live and work with children; those are crucial people that can destroy or elevate the spirits, (3) you can achieve a lot - even if the odds are against you - if you show up and insist on doing, (4) even if you do not fit in any of the stereotypes ascribed to you (Temple is really out there in all her un-social, un-feminine, un-easy rawness), you can succeed and do what you are passionate about.

Here you can see Grandin in action giving a TED talk on the value of diversity of thinking:

 

Friday is the (Inspirational) Movie Night: Hanna (2011)

#inspirationalmovies

Hold on to your chairs... because here you have a quite classical thriller centered around a girl. Hanna (2011) is a weird story, no doubt. And I'm perfectly fine with debating - as in the case of Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012) - if being raised in a way that's alternative to the great majority and puts children in harms way is child abuse. Probably it is. But then again, raising a child on just Cartoon Network and candy could be considered very limiting and severely suboptimal too. Also, Hanna is 16 instead of 6-year-old Hushpuppy. Evolving capacities, people, evolving capacities. And a rather sci-fi narrative. Let's focus on the particular piece of fiction then.

It's eerie to watch it. Especially if you are sensitive to cinematographic violence. And it makes you question social conventions around the way we socialize our children, teaching them what's acceptable and what's not. Completely arbitrary sets of values, of course.

Also, by showing a quite rare narrative (Luc Besson's La Femme Nikita (1990) and Léon: The Professional (1994) come quite close, though), forces you to realize how internalized in this culture are the idea that violence is something that only adult men do. It's weird and doesn't feel right to see the dreamy Saoirse Ronan killing animals and people. It takes a movie like this to get hit by the hard truth that the violence is heavily gendered. Culturally obvious, but tricky still.

A little bonus just for you: the haunting Hanna's theme. You are welcome!

Friday is the (Inspirational) Movie Night: Matilda (1996)

#inspirationalmovies

Ok, consider that this is as Halloweenish/All Saints/All Dead I'll go. Here you have superpowers, intimidated children, terrible parents and teachers, and scaring people out of their wits. And the love for books... and Roald Dahl.

Matilda (1996) is a very sweet and very 1990's version of Dahl's tale about:

1) A little girl that has landed in the wrong family by birth. But, as the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb, finds her happiness in books first and then in leaving them behind once she has found an alternative, better suiting family.

2) A little girl with superpowers that permit her to fight against injustice, punish the meanies, and have fun.

3) A little bibliophile obsessed with the escape and horizons that books offer.

4) A little smartass that instead of formal schooling chooses unschooling at home as her happy ending.

That's why Matilda is a superheroine I'd chose over Hit-Girl. Also, the crucial story is centered around three female protagonists: Matilda, Miss. Honey and Trunchbull. And that's an emanicpatory thing: you get to see that there are many ways how anyone - also anyone gendered as a girl/woman - can yield power. While the level of stereotypical masculinization of Trunchbull can be discussed (is she depicted as masculine in order to be more of an Other, more scarier?), the very fact that it's a female-dominated narrative (+ Matilda's father) is already note worthy.

Shanique ♥ Being a Girl

While going through the stories about the IPPF's Emerging Leaders' Summit celebrated a year ago, a initiative called The I'm Glad I'm A Girl Foundation caught our attention. It does sound like we have many things in common, so we asked it's founding member, Shanique Campbell to share her story. 

"I am Shanique Campbell.
I enjoy singing, chilling with the people I love and eating... I am a BIG foodie.

If I really stop to think about it, I started as small as 5 years old when I would get the most helpful certificate every year in school. But this really evolved in high school, selling newspapers for my key club that would then be used to purchase much needed items for children's homes all over.
In University, I became a peer leader for the premier leadership program UWILEADS; which had as a part of its function a Social Justice Programe that sought out ways in which both schools and communities could be engaged and people could become empowered.

Upon getting pregnant in 2011, the latter part of my second year of University studies, I had an extremely difficult time adjusting with what was to come not just physically but mentally as well and what started out as just a summer camp has now developed into being so much more. Not only did I give birth to a beautiful baby girl, but I also had the opportunity be a founding member of the only foundation of its kind in Jamaica; The I'm Glad I'm A Girl Foundation.

Our target was to empower girls who are currently in the most defining moments of their lives - puberty - and by way of doing that, not only empower them but help them to empower their friends and families.

I'm Glad I'm A Girl from Amina Doherty on Vimeo.

This foundation has redefined me and has really put into focus what I believe in. It has also afforded me the opportunity to travel and not only speak about Jamaica and what we are doing there but to also share best practices with other regions so that they too can help to uplift this vulnerable group. Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, Conflict Resolution, Financial Literacy and Career Planning are all things that are needed to help to cultivate the world that we want to see.
I firmly believe that if you develop a girl, you develop a nation and as such I try to share my passion with anyone who will listen.

What makes me continue is really just a drive to see social justice and gender equality something that is a reality all over the world. I truly love what I do and as a mother, I want to be the change I wish to see in the world so that my daughter will have a different experience than I did.
As an Emerging Leader with IPPF and the youth advisor for the Global Coalition on Women and Aids, I see myself being able to give a voice to the voiceless and to help others find their voice along the way and it is a responsibility that I honor with pride.

The world would be a much better place if everybody would:

• See The Man with One Red Shoe with Tom Hanks and The Danger of a Single Story by Chimamanda Adichie
• Listen to Jill Scott and learn about the fat back...
• Read Thinking Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
• Try zip-lining (it's amazing!) and following their gut 

Before I am 80, I would like to travel to at least 40 countries, to experience the many different cultures and of course try out their food. I would also like to be thought of as a pastry chef by even one person! :) "

Friday is the (Inspirational) Movie Night: Ghost World (2001) vs. The Help (2011)

#InspirationalMovies

Compensating for last week, here we are with a double feature and an almost contradictory message. It is Ghost World (2001, Terry Zwigoff) vs. The Help (2011, Tate Taylor).

Both might result triggering and problematic (nerdiness, cruelty, whiteness, self-righteousness are all featured) but this is not why we are bringing them up. We are bringing these two together because there you have the forever dilemma - especially felt by women in certain situations but universal still - between fitting in and daring to be different.

And those two movies are antithesis to each other: while The Help is exploring the impulses that makes one to step out and stand her ground about one's core beliefs, although it may imply social sanctions, Ghost World introduces you to Enid and Rebecca who, having spent years curating their weirdness and marginalization in the realms of formal education, are negotiating a re-entering into the world of normal.

The morals is the following: trying to find strength to be as authentic as you wish and courage to change if you feel that the previous you is somehow outdated and needs an update. Transformation is human. It's really OK. As is questioning, searching, and not really knowing.

Sunday is for Horizons: How to go to movies? The Bechdel test and so on.

#BechdelTest #movies #Sunday

Back to the conversations with popular culture that we are immersed into. One of your ways to chose culture to consume can be our inspirational movie suggestions, of course, but today we are offering an additional criteria.

OK, this is a practical advice column of in-case-you-didn't-know-this. So, meet Bechdel test, the idea that it just makes sense that in a cultural product there would be
   1) at least two women
   2) that talk to each other
   3) about something else than a love interest.

Sounds normal and easy? HAH! Not that easy. And we agree to Colin Stokes up there and the ladies in the comic below. Yes, you can find inspiration and role models in differently gendered characters than you identify (I have always wanted to be Yoda when I grow up, seriously). Yes, Bechdel test can lead you into weird paths (horror tends to be Bechdel test friendly, so is a lot of porn...).

It can still be a fun addition for not being able to consume the pop culture without questioning it. Aha, tiring, but be honest, you wouldn't want it in any other way.  
So, this movie list is a combination of bechdeltest.com and imdb.com evaluations. Assuming the accuracy of those, here you have good, fresh movies (7 and more in the scale of 10) that comply with the Bechdel test.

Friday is the (Inspirational) Movie Night: Born Into Brothels (2004)

#InspirationalMovie #BornIntoBrothels

This week (and apologizing for not being there for you last Friday) we suggest a feature-lenght Oscar-winning documentary Born Into Brothels: Calcutta's Red Light Kids (2004, Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman). The outline is rather easy to understand:

"Briski, a documentary photographer, went to Calcutta to photograph prostitutes. While there, she befriended their children and offered to teach the children photography to reciprocate being allowed to photograph their mothers. The children were given cameras so they could learn photography and possibly improve their lives. Much of their work was used in the film, and the filmmakers recorded the classes as well as daily life in the red light district. The children's work was exhibited, and one boy was even sent to a photography conference in Amsterdam. Briski also recorded her efforts to place the children in boarding schools." (Wiki says)

Nevertheless, the movie find its way into many of the debates that the SRHR/development communities usually have. What to do about the human miseries? How can one as an individual make a significant change? Can you, actually? What are the best interventions? Short-term? Long-term? Creative? Bringing discipline? How do you overcome bureaucratic obstacles? How do you change a culture opposed to (our, Occidental) notion of human wellbeing? What are the primary needs?
And all of that without even entering in the debate surrounding commercial sex work.

So enjoy thinking. Answering is optional.

Sunday is for horizons: Makers (2013)

#Feminism #MakersChat #InspirationalMovies

Again, a #SundayIsForHorizons slightly out of what it was conceived to be. Perfect and extremely educational, though. The three-hour PBS documentary Makers: Women Who Make America (2013) is a very well done account of the history of feminism and empowerment of women during the second half of the 20th century.

While there is some (rightful) criticism regarding the portrayal of the current movements among women and feminisms, this is a very solid work of documentation on how the feminism (the second wave, that is to say) we know as such started. Even if you are not that into women studies. Even if you are not that into the history of the U.S. Even if you don't identify as a feminist (ouch!)... these are things every person to some extent involved in the social movements, social justice, and living in a society should know this story of empowerment and enormous (although not as big as hoped for) success.

And while not a feature film as #InspirationalMovies tend to be, still full of very real testimonies and able to push for change (even if those are baby-steps and very basic awareness raising).

+ The greatest thing is that you can streamline it for free right now! All three episodes.
Go! Take notes and expand your role model list. And your reading list. Revolutionize your own life. Build a movement.

Friday is the (Inspirational) Movie Night: Brave (2012)

#inspirationalmovies

This week we stay with the female emancipation and child marriage but through the eyes of Disney/Pixar. We suggest you watch Brave (2012, Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman, and Steve Purcell).

Yes, fair enough, it is not the greatest beacon of feministing to be found in the history of the cinematograph. Nevertheless, we have to admit that Disney princesses are changing for good. This one, Merida, together with the newest Rapunzel being the most advanced ones.

And Brave is good exactly for what it is: not a taming-of-the-shrew story (like, Mulan (1998)). Merida doesn't need to change herself, she just have to find a way to convince her mother that it is not the moment for her to get married + that if she will chose a partner in future, she'll do that on her own... 

Certainly better idea for what to watch together with little children (not only girls, mind you!) than Snow White (1937), Cinderella (1950), or Sleeping Beauty (1959) that are left to more mature audiences that can approach the story critically (and read into the richness of symbols that are by no means innocent).

Sunday is the day when #GirlsDecide: Hosna

This time we travel to Bangladesh to meet Hosna* and hear about her decision making journey. She tells us about her fears regarding an early marriage and looks for a way to make an autonomous decision about her future, while involving her community and changing some of the customs.

Sunday is the day when #GirlsDecide: Halimah

Halimah's* journey takes us to Indonesia and through the difficulties of taking an informed decision about a pregnancy when your culture and your family might not be entirely with you.

And how comprehensive sexuality education could change the entire picture...

Friday is the (Inspirational) Movie Night: Whole New Thing (2005)

#inspirationalmovie

This week's feature is the sweetest coming of age story. Whole New Thing (2005, Amnon Buchbinder) tells the shock of somebody body and sex positive, somebody who has received a comprehensive sexuality education and is not constrained by rigid gender roles suddenly clashing with the real world. And dealing with it.

You get a love story, a closeted gay thriller, a rite of passage... all of it, covered with Canadian snow and a cute hippie vibe. You'll laugh and cry. We promise.

Friday is the (Inspirational) Movie Night: Kinsey (2004)

A shout-out to our dedication to comprehensive sexuality education, here we go with a feature film about Alfred Kinsey (1894-1956), the entomologist turned sexologist that opened eyes in USA regarding what people do with their sexualities and the great diversity that exists in human sexual behavior (yes, even in places where sex is claimed to be sinful and desire - always heterosexual!).

Kinsey (2004, Bill Condon) establishes a link between personal struggles and what becomes a vocation to a man who changed his scientific interest from gall wasps to human sexual behavior in the USA of 1940's and 1950's. 

A reminder that the work of an activist / expert / researcher might not be all that rosy, especially if it's something new, even revolutionary that she is doing.
And that - despite oppositions and people afraid to stand with you - it is worth to follow what you (and the Scientific Method) find to be the right thing to do!

Right to Education: Bibliophilia!

#girlwithabook

Following up with the Malala initiative, here we have girls reading in Spain and in Slovakia.

And some of this seems to be a clear dedication to Naomi Wolf's Promiscuities: The Secret Struggle for Womanhood (or a Secret History of Female Desire) (1998).

Keep reading!

Right to Eduaction: Malala

#girlwithabook

We have been talking about education and books before but this is different.

Suddenly EVERYBODY is concerned about the fact that so many girls in the world are out of school. Aha, much more girls than boys. And you know, if both Madonna and the UN Secretary General are talking about the same issue at the same time, it's important.

And the reason is a girl. Malala Yousufzai (and bunch of Talibans but they are the really-really bad guys in the story) is the reason. And so is her resilience.

We are celebrating her and all the activists fighting for access to education. And we are doing this by joining the #girlwithabook initiative.

Intimate bibliophile portraits of you and some books can be a part of the movement for Universal Access to Education.
Get your camera and your favorite book... 3, 2, 1, say "Malala"! 

Source: @Half

Educating girls is smart, for girls

Education is good for girls. Full stop. Now repeat it again and again. While standing on a chair or any other elevated object, preferably.

Because, as much as we love Girl Effect or any other efforts promoting empowerment of girls and women, at least some of the feminine mystique around investing in girls has to go. Education for girls is good not because they give all their money back to their family afterwards while boys with the same education will not. The very fact that the boys would not support their families equally is profoundly alarming, and a clear sign of structural disadvantage for girls.

So, education for girls for girls' sake we say. 

Girls + pregnancies

In the SRHR community, we spend a lot of time talking about maternal morbidity and mortality, about the need to insure access to health care services and supplies. We insist on need for access, real access to education for girls. We advocate for mandatory Comprehensive Sexuality Education since very early in one's life.

But the curious thought that sums it all up, as presented by Hugo Schwyzer, somehow surprised me

"Sperm kills.* For hundreds of millions of women over the course of millenia, the riskiest action they ever took was having sex (consensual or otherwise, married or not) with men. As medical historians will tell you, until the 20th century, childbirth was the leading cause of death for all women of childbearing years; in some societies that maternal mortality rate may have reached 40%, while other researchers prefer a lower figure of 1 in 5. Given that many women in the developing world still have half a dozen children or more, as they did in previous centuries, the overall risk is compounded by the sheer number of pregnancies carried to term. (1 in 7 Afghan women today die in childbirth.)

To put it even more bluntly, men have killed far more women by ejaculating inside of them than they have by any other method. Semen has killed more people than any other body fluid."

He concludes that, culturally, as a collective unconscious knowledge, it might be one of the reasons to fear the patriarchy-wise channeled male (hetero)sexuality even in places where the feminist fight is not anymore about the legal right to say "no".

A thought-provoking read, anyways.
 

Starting later thanks to books and your Mom,

Books do good things to everybody!

Although early (go, define!) sex is nothing bad, in case you think it has to be avoided, here are your answers. And, no, it is not socio-economic class of the family or race/ethnic origin (we are talking US data here, keep in mind).

Two factors play critical roles in protecting girls-regardless of their socioeconomic status and household structure-against early sexual activity: (1) the quality of their relationship with their mothers and (2) achievement in school, specifically their reading proficiency.

(The research from Girls.inc + the commentary from Feministing.org)

So, education and social networks are the key! We can still look more into some more particular variables and such, but you get the general image.
And knowing that the academic success is also very much household attitudes-bound, more support for education (oh, books! oh, good public education!) and quality family time (oh, parental leaves! oh, work that's compatible with private life!) should be the key for anybody that actually feels like supporting family values (!) and postponing sexual activities.

If that's not your cup of tea, this might be,