The Voice of a Girl Child - A MUST READ!!

Julianna and friends at the Dadaab Refuge Camp in Somalia.

Yesterday was International Women's Day and I was struggling to find the right content for a blog post. Everything I was reading and seeing was important but none of it hit me just right - until this morning when I saw a post from my friend Julianna Bloodgood about a poem that moved her. This hit me like a punch in the gut: the crystal clear, logical voice of a girl who knows exactly what she is entitled to.

Julianna and her colleague Michael are working at the Dadaab refuge camp in Somalia via their non-profit The Great Globe Foundation. I hope you will connect to their work and stay connected. Tell them they matter. Show them they count.

Find out how to commit to helping Kowsar get the rights she is entitled to - don't be the old man who binds her or the woman with the knife. Our silence makes us complicit with those who limit her.

Reach out today and ask how you can help.

The Voice of a Girl Child
Wednesday, March 09, 2011
By: Kowsar (16 years old, Somali refugee)

Ssh! Listen
Do you hear that?
That is the voice of a girl child
A child who is a future teacher
A future doctor and a future pilot
If only my dreams are not shattered

I think of myself as a star
With my own passion of light
I can shine if given the opportunity
Opportunity to follow my brothers to school
Opportunity to grow up and learn more from the teachers
And if only my dreams are not shattered

I think of myself as a giraffe
My sight set high
Big vision on big things
You don't have to marry me off to an old man
Just because you think school is not the right place for a girl
I need to go to school and pursue my goals

I think of myself as a live engine
Always going never slowing
Time is elapsing
Let my education not be a hot spot
The old man is waiting for my hand in marriage
The old woman is waiting with a knife
I need to go to school and pursue my goals

I think of myself as a lion
To roar loud and be heard
You don't have to take me as your wife
Just because I am a beautiful girl
Instead teach me a mathematical formula
So that my dreams are not shattered

I think of myself as a star
I think of myself as a live engine
I think of myself as a giraffe
I think of myself as a lion
Dear teacher, parents and guardians
Give me the rights I am entitled to

(p.s. if you wish to forward this poem, please make sure you reference the Great Globe Foundation).