Oct 11 is being celebrated as the International Day of the Girl for the past eight years to the needs and challenges of girls, thereby promoting their activism and human rights. WOW – Women of the World, Mulberry Schools Trust and Purposeful announced online plans to mark this year’s International Day of the Girl that took place across the weekend of 9 – 11 October 2020.
Mulberry Schools Trust in partnership with WOW curated a day of digital panel discussions and workshops using its Global Girl Leading platform to focus on activism in an ever-changing world to mark International Day of the Girl. It included live webinars intermixed with pre-recorded interviews to over 20 different schools from Somerset to Singapore,as well as schools in the Mulberry family
The speakers included founder and chair of the Women of the Future Awards and Asian Women of Achievement Awards Pinky Lilani; Jude Kelly founder of The WOW Foundation, which runs WOW - Women of the World; human rights and equality barrister Schona Jolly QC; human rights campaigner Rahima Begum; girls education activist Nusrath Hassan; actress Jing Lusi; creative director, artist activist and DJ Saliah M Bryan; youth sports ambassador and podcast host Lipa Nessa; CEO of UK Youth Ndidi Okezie and multi-award-winning broadcaster, social impact entrepreneur and diversity champion Dr Joanna Abeyie MBE. A panel discussion exploring being a girl activist, hosted by Jude Kelly and featuring three influential young activists, premiered via WOW’s YouTube Channel and website on 11 October which was chaired by Amika George, founder of Free Periods campaign, who was joined by Hayat Muse, youth activist and co-founder of Kow iyo Labo, and Heba Rose Ahmed, a human rights and anti-racist activist who was responsible for 15,000 people attending the Black Lives Matter protest at Piccadily Gardens in Manchester earlier this year.
Others who participated in the convenings were; education activists Maryam and Nivaal Rehman (Pakistan); climate justice, gender equality and human rights activist Ariadne Papatheodorou (Greece); sustainability advocate and founder of BYO Bottle Singapore campaign Kate Yeo (Singapore); climate and social justice activist Theresa Rose Sebastian (Ireland); youth activist and Teen Advisor for Girl Up Rym Badran (Lebanon); founder of Youth Advocates for Sustainable development and Malala Fund Girl child advocate Peace Ayo Adegbola (Nigeria); climate activist Lola Fayokun (UK); Youth Activist with Plan International Australia Maya Ghassali and co-host of podcast Refugees on Air Sarah Ghassali (Syria / Australia); child marriage activist and member of the national child forum Dola Akter Reba (Bangladesh); environmental activist Catarina Lorenzo (Brazil); gender, youth and climate activist Seravi Silva Harris (Sri Lanka), coding and tech activist Selin Ornek (Turkey); gender-based violence activist Mariam Hussein (Somalia); girl empowerment activist Saru Khadka (Nepal); and gender activist Viktorija Milosevic (Serbia).
