Tonight, I watched the first half of a life-changing documentary called "Half The Sky". Its focus is educating girls, all over the world. Girls in impoverished cities, girls in remote locations, who would likely drop out long before high school--if they ever got to go to school at all.
Here, in North America...do we value our education? Really? I certainly didn't. How many children and teens have you heard say, "I hate school!" ?
Canadians and Americans have been manditorily educated for so many decades that we now take it for granted...while girls as young as TWO YEARS OLD are sold to brothels in places like Cambodia. TWO. YEARS. OLD. How do you rape a two year old?!
A girl who is raped brings shame to her family, and is kicked out, or SOLD. While rape--though unfortunate--is forgivable.
We are completely blind, and ignorant, to how little value girls and women have in so many places in the world. They are objects. Things. Slaves. Sex. Money. They are no more valuable than what they can do for a man.
Girls have to stay home from school to look after younger children, so their parents can work, so they can afford to feed the family. Can you IMAGINE--REALLY--any twelve-year-old girl you know, running a household, and caring--RESPONSIBLY--for her younger siblings?
Or, girls have to work. Selling things...beaten if they don't meet expectations. Or, worst, they are sold into the sex trade.
How about this scenario, which missionaries who visited our church told us about:
You're walking down the street, and are approached by a pimp. He says to you, "Woman? Woman?" You say no. "Girl? You want girl?" No. "Man??" NO! Finally...you think he'll leave you alone, when he says, like it's NOTHING, "Child? Child?"
It happens every day. To millions of children. Your niece. Your daughter. Your granddaughter. Your sister. Your girlfriend. Your wife. They are only different in that they were lucky enough to be born here, and not there. In that mindset.
Girls here, in North America, are dressing sexier all the time, at younger and younger ages. Girls who have been rescued from a brothel can't WAIT to don a "boring", plain school uniform. Every day. They want to be seen for WHO THEY ARE, not for how sexy they look. Girls here see being sexy as being powerful. Girls there KNOW being seen as sexy makes them completely powerless. Being SMART, EDUCATED, and INDEPENDENT makes them successful, powerful, EQUAL individuals.
They DREAM of education, and a better life. Education is a safe haven. A place where they are safe, and can enjoy learning, and being themselves--if only for a few hours. A higher education means they are likely to have a career, be independent, marry later, have fewer children, and take better care of their children. Education means BREAKING THE CYCLE OF POVERTY. Of girls having no value. Of girls being treated as less than human.
One woman said, "To my father, a son was a child. 10 girls did not equal one child."
I have only watched part 1 of 2 of this eye-opening, sickening, heart breaking documentary so far.
After it ended, I stared at a painting on the wall, of Jesus, climbing down a steep cliff to rescue a sheep that had fallen. I said, "Lord! Why are you not saving these little lambs?!" And the answer came: "You are my hands and my feet."
Am I? ARE WE???
Here, in North America...do we value our education? Really? I certainly didn't. How many children and teens have you heard say, "I hate school!" ?
Canadians and Americans have been manditorily educated for so many decades that we now take it for granted...while girls as young as TWO YEARS OLD are sold to brothels in places like Cambodia. TWO. YEARS. OLD. How do you rape a two year old?!
A girl who is raped brings shame to her family, and is kicked out, or SOLD. While rape--though unfortunate--is forgivable.
We are completely blind, and ignorant, to how little value girls and women have in so many places in the world. They are objects. Things. Slaves. Sex. Money. They are no more valuable than what they can do for a man.
Girls have to stay home from school to look after younger children, so their parents can work, so they can afford to feed the family. Can you IMAGINE--REALLY--any twelve-year-old girl you know, running a household, and caring--RESPONSIBLY--for her younger siblings?
Or, girls have to work. Selling things...beaten if they don't meet expectations. Or, worst, they are sold into the sex trade.
How about this scenario, which missionaries who visited our church told us about:
You're walking down the street, and are approached by a pimp. He says to you, "Woman? Woman?" You say no. "Girl? You want girl?" No. "Man??" NO! Finally...you think he'll leave you alone, when he says, like it's NOTHING, "Child? Child?"
It happens every day. To millions of children. Your niece. Your daughter. Your granddaughter. Your sister. Your girlfriend. Your wife. They are only different in that they were lucky enough to be born here, and not there. In that mindset.
Girls here, in North America, are dressing sexier all the time, at younger and younger ages. Girls who have been rescued from a brothel can't WAIT to don a "boring", plain school uniform. Every day. They want to be seen for WHO THEY ARE, not for how sexy they look. Girls here see being sexy as being powerful. Girls there KNOW being seen as sexy makes them completely powerless. Being SMART, EDUCATED, and INDEPENDENT makes them successful, powerful, EQUAL individuals.
They DREAM of education, and a better life. Education is a safe haven. A place where they are safe, and can enjoy learning, and being themselves--if only for a few hours. A higher education means they are likely to have a career, be independent, marry later, have fewer children, and take better care of their children. Education means BREAKING THE CYCLE OF POVERTY. Of girls having no value. Of girls being treated as less than human.
One woman said, "To my father, a son was a child. 10 girls did not equal one child."
I have only watched part 1 of 2 of this eye-opening, sickening, heart breaking documentary so far.
After it ended, I stared at a painting on the wall, of Jesus, climbing down a steep cliff to rescue a sheep that had fallen. I said, "Lord! Why are you not saving these little lambs?!" And the answer came: "You are my hands and my feet."
Am I? ARE WE???
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