Educate young girls for a better future

In class this week we watched a documentary called Girl Rising directed by Richard E. Robbins, which was about nine young girls with different stories. Each girl had the same goal to receive an education that they deserved and we watched how each overcame their struggles to obtain that education. It was an eye-opening documentary because in different parts of the world girls have different situations that prevent them from receiving an education, versus being a girl in America that can easily get an education. I realized how much I been taking advantage of my own education and even being able to attend college, I now will double think before I complain about homework or exams.

All of the stories shocked me to know that in many countries there is still a version of slavery among young girls, girls are abused or raped, and families choose to send their sons instead of their daughters to school. Parents easily sell their daughters to obtain money and prevent them from doing what they want most and that’s going to school.  One of the stories was about a young girl in Afghanistan who parents sold their daughter to a man double her age to buy a car for their son.  I thought that was heartless because with the money they receive for their daughter’s life they traded for a car, I would have understood if they needed something more important to survive with but it was just a car for their son. The horrifying part of the story was she gave birth at a very young age when she should be enjoying a life as a child, but she is treated like trash that is just a slave to man. It was hard to watch knowing that there isn’t much I myself can do to help those children in the same situation.

A story that was similar to these girls that came to my mind during the documentary was about my own mother who grew up in the Philippines and the struggles she had for her education. She would tell me about how she would wake up 4 or 5 o’clock in the morning to get ready for school where she would have to help wake her 7 other sibling to also get ready for school. They would walk for about 2 miles until they reached school. When I went to visit my cousins in the Philippines they too got up at 5 in the morning just to go to school but they didn’t come home until it was already dusk around 6 at night. That surprised me the most because these young girls would have to walk in near dark just to come home and do homework then start their day again at 5 in the morning. My mom would always lecture me during high school when I would complain about waking up early just to take a bus while for her when she attended high school there weren’t any buses to take, so her only option was to walk.

Overall, the documentary made me realize how much I should appreciate my parents for letting me go to college, and I am grateful that I was given the opportunity to receive an education in America. I would like to know different ways to help young girls all over the world to receive the education they need.