As the leader of Caledon's Leadership Forum for Women and an advocate for women's empowerment, I'm so very proud of the three university students who are spearheading the "Girls Can Too" project in my community.
Girls Can Too is an initiative designed to provide opportunities for young girls to learn about construction and ecology while restoring a historical Caledon Landmark. The programme provides valuable experience so our girls feel confident applying for traditionally male-dominated trade or construction roles.
Marian Wright Edelman, a famous activist for the rights of children, once said "You can't be what you can't see". It is programmes like Girls Can Too that will put an end to gender stereotypes and biases in the workforce and is crucial to the vision of a co-gender led world.
Most university-age girls are working part time jobs this summer to save up some money and return to the fall semester. Danielle, Dana and Nadia care so much about the empowerment of girls that they have been volunteering their time in an effort to bring positive change to our community and expand the possibilities for the next generation of female leaders in the world.
All the funding they have raised to date has gone to supplies and costs of running the programme. However, that doesn’t damper their determination and passion to see this vital initiative run successfully for many, many years to come.
In honour of this year’s International Youth Day celebration on 12 August 2015, I felt it is imperative that the rest of the world know about these three amazing young Canadians. It is young role-models like Danielle, Dana and Nadia who will put an end to gender discrimination once and for all.
Written by Tammy Elliott.
Photo: Danielle Marr / Caledon Enterprise
| Region : Americas and the Caribbean