The Coalition for Adolescent Girls Memo

Date: February 14, 2011

To: 1311 English Students

From: Gabriela A. Vázquez

Re: The Coalition for Adolescent Girls

Everyone wants peace in the world, but where should we start?  There are a couple of organizations and foundations determined to work for peace.  The Coalition for Adolescent Girls is one of them.  This organization is “committed to creating lasting change for communities in the developing world by driving investments to adolescent girls.”  They say that when girls have an education, are healthy, and financially literate, they will play an important part in ending generations of poverty.  The United Nations Foundation and the Nike Foundation founded this organization in 2005.  Their goal is “to unleash the untapped potential of the developing world’s six hundred million adolescent girls by raising awareness and driving action.” 

They choose girls because “she is the world’s most powerful force for change.”  They choose girls because if they stay in school, stay healthy; they will gain skills in order to marry at an appropriate age and have less and healthier children.  This then will result in and income that she will invest back to her family.  They look for girls who were born in extreme poverty where some of the aspects they share are that they leave school early (uneducated), they marry early and therefore have children to young, because of having children early they have a many health risks, and they do not have the skills to go ahead and support financially their families.  The statistics say that girls in poor countries leave school early, marry to young, so then they will not gain the skills to become a probable full woman.  This is a tragedy that will be multiplied by six hundred million adolescent girls around the world, which at the end results in an endless cycle of poverty. 

Today they are focused on: “collecting and distributing the facts that describe the positive change girls have on their communities, indentifying the girl-specific actions and investments that will ignite change, and forming a community of like-minded organizations with diverse expertise to inform our collective work.” 

In a power point that you can download from the website there is a chart that states how many females live with HIV, by sex, which is far more than males.  Also, it is incredible how many girls have been physically or sexually abused from ages 15-19.  There is from 5-49%, and this is only in some countries, you can also imagine how much more could be in other countries also. 

If we start taking action, like this organization, with girls who live under this conditions and also with girls who live in extreme poverty, this statistics will change and girls will make a big difference if they can be educated, be married at a good age, have children when they are healthy; then this will change because they will be aware of the situations in life and then they will start having children when they have fully gain their skills to support their family. 

The Coalition for Adolescent Girls website (http://www.coalitionforadolescentgirls.org/#) provides more information about this organization.  You can also be able to help this girls and take action.  

Central Asia Institute

In the video “Building Peace” Greg Morrison described the circumstances in which people live in Central Asia.   In the early 1990’s, Greg Morrison went to Central Asia and saw the living conditions of the people there.   He promised them that he was going to return and build a school for the children.   He promised it and make it happened.   At the end of the 1990’s the school was built.   He named the school Central Asia Institute.   The school is focused mainly in the education of girls than in boys.

I think that it is very interesting that he focused in the education of children instead on community’s roads, houses or other kind of help to the community.   In my opinion, he is right in his approach because if you educate the children they will be able to make changes that will benefit the whole community.   An educated child may help the world to change.   Peace needs to start individually.   We cannot control the whole world to have peace but we can control and create our own peace.      

From the video we see that people in Central Asia live under extreme poverty conditions.    Also we learn that the majority of them, if not all of them, want to become a better person and that they want to be educated.   It makes you feel sad when you see the conditions in which the children live in Central Asia.   I agree that this conditions affects peace and that on the contrary education will lead to peace.   Educated people know what to expect from life.   Education gives them tools to reach goals and to make changes that will make the world a better place to live.    It is important to mention that we cannot blame the parents of children of Central Asia for not trying to educate their children.  They do not have the resources to pay for their education, but at least they try to teach their children themselves.      It is important to mention that in Central Asia’s countries some children do not receive education due to discrimination.   That makes me feel sad and at the same time angry because education must be for everyone.   All children deserve a good education no matter their color, religion, culture, status, etc.   If people stop the discrimination, more children will be educated and that will help to start important changes in the world that will result in a better and peaceful world.   It is important to say that some of the most important problems that affect a community, such as crime, are related to lack of education.

In my opinion, Morrison’s approach is the best one, if you want to make changes you must start from the root of the problem.    In a community the solution must start individually.    Educated people will be able to work to get what they want and fulfill their basic needs.    They will be able to build their houses and roads.   This will result in a better community and at the end in a peaceful world.   I think that this world needs more people as Greg Morrison.

Peace

The word peace is not easy to define.   People have different definitions and opinions of what is peace.    Even the definition is different between countries and cultures.    Usually, peace is defined as “a society or a relationship that is operating harmoniously and without violent conflict”.    Most people believe that they are living or have peace when their nation is not in war or hostility with another nation.   Also some people understand that they have peace when an agreement or treaty is signed by two or more countries.   Others believe that you have peace when the government offers security and order.

This topic is a very debatable one and most people believe that they know what peace is.   In my opinion we have peace when there is no conflict between nations, when the government offers us security and order but also when each individual can live harmoniously with the other individuals in their community.   Peace must start in your own home, at school, at your work, in general in the community.    No one can say that live in peace when is having differences with other members of the community.   To reach total peace people have to create peace in their own environment and live in peace with themselves.  

I am from Puerto Rico.    Last year over 900 people were murdered in my country.   About 90 percent of these murders were related to drugs traffic, about five percent to domestic violence and about one percent were parents that killed their siblings.   With this problem, there is no way we can claim that we have peace because we are not in war with another country.   We don’t have peace, our people is in war.  

In my opinion, no one will have peace as long as a husband kills his wife because he is jealous or she want to divorce, or a parent kills his sibling because he did something wrong or people are killing others for the control of drug traffic or people discriminate against others members of their community.   I think that this war or lack of peace is the worst because it never ends.

There were important people that really wanted peace and worked for it in different ways.   Some like Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Mr. Nelson Mandela (independence of India without violence), Mother Theresa of Calcutta and Prince Diana (fight poverty), and Pope John Paul II that intervened when countries were at the verge of a war.                           

In my opinion, peace includes the harmonious relationship in a community, the security offered by the state and no wars between nations.   However, to be in peace with other nations it is necessary to have peace in our community first.