On Thursday, students from several local schools gathered at Lindale School for an important message.
The 411 TV: Because I Am A Girl movement wanted to let these girls, students in Grades 6 to 8 classes, know that while their lives in Canada are, for the most part at least, quite good, girls in other countries are not being treated as well by society. In some countries, the girls do all the work at home, are the last to eat and get only what's left after the others have eaten, are not allowed to go to school and are treated as second-class citizens in their own countries.
They will never have the opportunity to be a doctor or lawyer or rock star or model. Most probably don't even dare to dream it. Their lives will not improve much at all over time.
Thursday's session might have been a little uncomfortable for some. The biggest hardship in their lives might be not having a boyfriend, not being part of the popular crowd or not having parents who give them their own cellphone and unlimited use of it. How sad.
So if for even a few minutes that day, they held up a list of their problems and compared it to a list of problems facing young girls in other parts of the world, and they felt the slightest twinge of guilt, then it was worthwhile.
What we really need though, is similar programs that we can all relate to. There are times when we all become so consumed with our own problems we think no one else on earth could possibly have it as bad — never mind worse. The sad reality is, you seldom have to look very far to find someone going through worse than yourself.
So any program that promotes people to look beyond their own problems and their own world can't help but make the individual looking a little stronger and a little better of a human being.
