Today is World Population Day
This is a day to focus attention on the urgency and importance of population issues
POLOKWANE – In 1989, the Governing Council of the United Nations Development Programme recommended that 11 July be observed by the international community as World Population Day.
This is a day to focus attention on the urgency and importance of population issues. This year’s theme is “Investing in Teenage Girls.”
Teenage girls around the world face daily challenges. Many are considered by their communities or parents to be ready for marriage and motherhood with many forced from school, damaging their future prospects.
Even among girls who stay in school, access to basic information about their health, human rights and reproductive rights can be hard to come by, leaving them vulnerable to illness, injury and exploitation.
But the solution to ending these human rights abuses, according to the United Nations Population Fund is to Empower girls.
When girls are valued as much as boys – when they are allowed to receive an education, when they live free of violence, and receive sexual and reproductive health information and care – they are able to stand up for themselves.
Educated girls are more likely to delay marriage and pregnancy, and their future children are healthier. These girls are better able to meet their full potential, benefiting themselves, their families, their countries and the world.
