Nope, an adolescent girl.
Here’s some information I received from the Coalition for Adolescent Girls, which was founded by the United Nations Foundation and The Nike Foundation.
An adolescent girl can be the most powerful person in the world. She’s the key to ending generations of poverty. As a young woman and mother, she will make the decisions that determine the health and education of her family. She will shape the economic potential of her family, community and nation.
There are now more than 500 million adolescent girls in the developing world.
Today, adolescent girls are at a crossroads. From here they can prosper by continuing their schooling, remaining free of HIV, increasing their family’s income, deciding when to marry and raising healthy, educated children. Or they can live in poverty by being forced to abandon their education, be exposed to unsafe sex and HIV, marry early to an older man, be unable to feed their families and not afford to school their children.
A large resource gap exists in the development landscape for adolescent girls. Currently, in many cases 80-90 percent of youth program participants are boys due to the daily challenges girls face. Girl-specific resources will make the difference. They will give her one more year of school. An extra year before she’s married. A year to learn a trade.
These opportunities not only improve an adolescent girl’s life, they put everyone—her brothers, her sisters, her children and grandchildren—on a path towards progress. They create healthy, educated and economically stable communities and nations.
A more prosperous future lies in the hands of one of the most powerful people in the world—an adolescent girl.
When girls are educated, healthy and financially literate, they will play a key role in ending generations of poverty.
Not too long ago I was an adolescent girl. And to think that at age 15 I was powerful seems ridiculous to me, but the more I think about it, I was powerful. I just didn’t realize it. I was powerful. I attended an all girls’ college preparatory school. I was smart. I was healthy. I knew I would go to college. I knew I would get a job. I knew when and how to say no to a man. And most of all, I wanted a future.
I look at adolescent girls here who have dropped out of school, who depend on men for financial security and who already are pregnant.
But I also look at adolescent girls here who tell me their dreams for the future—going to university, getting a job, getting married to a man who treats them well and loves them, and not passing on HIV to their children.
Rosealia is one of these adolescent girls who gives me hope.
Rosealia (pictured above) was born with a twin brother, Titus, to an HIV positive mother. Titus came first, Rosealia followed. After Titus was born, a lot of blood was left over, which infected Rosealia with HIV because it’s not sitting in the womb that causes the fetus to be infected with HIV. It’s the process of coming out of the mother’s vagina when the fetus can swallow or inhale some of the mother’s blood that causes the virus to be transmitted.
Today, Rosealia is positive but her brother, Titus, is HIV negative. Rosealia has been taking antiretroviral drugs for two years. Rosealia’s father died several years ago leaving her mother behind to care for her, Titus and her other siblings in Africa’s second largest slum, Kibera.
I noticed Rosealia before I even knew who she was. Michael and I were attending an adolescent training program for children enrolled in Nyumbani’s Lea Toto program in Kibera. The thirteen year-old kept raising her hand and confidently answering the questions correctly.
Her twin brother Titus is number one in their class. Rosealia is number two. Rosealia loves to read- especially Harry Potter, and she writes in her journal every night in English to improve her skills. Her hope is that one day she will become a dean of a university.
And then there’s Elizabeth, who lives at Nyumbani’s Children Home.
Elizabeth is 17 years old but looks like she’s no more than 10. Earlier this year, Elizabeth came very close to death. Her lifelong battle with HIV has permanently stunted her growth and put her behind in school.
She’s currently in sixth grade. She has a 15-year-old sister Joyce (pictured below in the middle) who is also HIV positive and lives at Nyumbani. But you would never guess that Elizabeth is older than Joyce.
But Elizabeth is one of the brightest young women I’ve met here. She dreams of going to university, becoming a manager of a large office, marrying for love and having several children.
You see, adolescent girls really do hold all the power. If they feel empowered enough to stay in school, practice safe sex, marry for love, earn their own income and learn how to raise their children so that they won’t become infected with HIV, then change would begin. A more prosperous future would not only unravel for that one adolescent girl but for her family, her friends who watch her lead by example and her own children.
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