It is 11 at night and I have not even been back to my room yet. I am ready to fall asleep but there is so much to share with all of you and I could not wait another day to share it with you.

Yesterday I attended this extremely interesting session call "Girl Talk." It was a place that allowed girls to speak their minds and give suggestions. We broke into smaller groups and my specific group spoke about sexual exploitation. In my group was a wonderful young girl, Neema from Tanzania. In her culture women marry at the age of ten due to tradition. The problem is not that they do not have rights because in their government they have equal rights, they just do not know they have these rights. With the help of missionaries, a center has been created for girls to runaway from the husbands and return to school.

 I am saddened to share a story with you of one of Neema's friends; She ran away from her husband looking for help and support at the age of ten. She returned to who she believed would be safe people, her immediate family. When she returned though, she was not greeted with joy, but her brother and her father beat her to death. They cannot find the brother and the father. Tomorrow I will be with Neema and she will continue speaking in front of many about what happens in her country.

I also found the courage to speak to a woman who was wearing what I considered rather strange clothes. She was a blond hair, light skinned woman, dressed in all white and wearing a turban. She was wearing a Chanel bag with diamonds everywhere. I asked her about her clothing and she turned out to be a sikh. She believes in transforming the world through yoga. It was quite an interesting conversation and I plan to look more into the religion when I return home.

As well, I watched a play called "Echoes of Eve" which was about 17 young women and their different views (all from different backgrounds). It was mind blowing and they would love to program anywhere. It would be great if more people could get the chance to see these high school girls and boy. Today however was much more interesting... I attended a session called Sexual Exploitation and the Girl Child. It was a panel discussion and interactive with the audience. On the panel was a prostituted girl from Queens, NY, a self-proclaimed eco-feminist, Roudinir from Haiti, Bella from Toga, and a young girl from the USA who has created a group of girls against trafficking which about 1500 girls have joined. Roudinir was slaved at the age of 8 and unlike many children was freed at the age of 14. Bella experienced a man from France creating a restaurant in Togo and exposing children to pornography and even when her government learned about it, they did nothing.

The story though that touched me the most, was Lucilla. Her story began when she was 11 years old and she was raped by her older brother. She moved into her uncle's home and was raped numerously by her cousins and her uncle. She ran away and was a victim of two gang rapes. She found comfort in a man who got her involved in prostituting herself and when she learned that he was a pimp, she was in too deep to get out. Her first experience, she made 600 dollars and thought that was a lot of money so she continued. She was arrested at the age of 11 and lied about her age so she spent a week in prison. Officers who arrested her, also raped her. Then, at the age of 12 she entered juvenile hall where she met with counselors. For the fear of being raped again and being put in juvie, she ran away. She was also very lucky in the fact that she received help from women and now lives in a house with girls trying to get an education who have left the sexual exploitation business. Today, Lucilla is 16 years old. She is younger than me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I cannot believe this. Lucilla wants to tell that world " We need to be recognized as survivors of sexual exploitation, not as criminals."

At this time, I learned very shocking information. NYC does not have any law about human trafficking. As well, the EU will not even discuss the possibility of illegalizing prostitution but Iran has agreed to make it illegal. I also had the chance today to speak to the Iranian delegate and took it. She spoke Farsi to me which kind of shocked me, but I replied with all that I could. She seems to be all for advancing the status of women and I attended a session of ending stoning forever campaign. I think it really is about time that we eliminate this process of killing people especially women by stoning.

There was also an interesting, but sickening session on Female Gentile Mutilation (FGM). It makes me sick to my stomach to talk about it so I recommend that if you have not heard about this, you look it up. It is shocking!

 

[An overview of FGM is available at: http://www.ndpteachers.org/strausbaughl/fgm.htm   WARNING: The information on this link is graphic and disturbing.]

Later in the day I attended the Girls' Caucus and found ignorance within the caucus, but today I had enough so I said something. Today we split up into groups. The way we were split up was racist within itself; United States, Europeans, Africans and Middle Easterners. Middle Eastern countries not include India and Thailand. Latin America and Asia were not even accounted for. I could not take it anymore and so I made it clear that India and Thailand are not part of the Middle East and there is actually Asia and Latin America. The girls did not appreciate my comments, but how can we make a change on the status of women when we are going to be ignorant among ourselves?

Today was one of the most overwhelming days yet. I cannot wait to come home and discuss everything with each of you. I hope all is well and everyone is pumped for Gym Meet.

 

-yas