CARE and UN Population Fund release "Stand up for Girls" report

Al-Anbat - (Petra) - CARE’s regional office for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and United Nations Population Fund’s Arab States Regional Office (UNFPA-ASRO) released a report titled "Stand up for Girls".

Gender-based violence (GBV), which includes violence against girls under the age of 18, is one of the main obstacles that hinder a girl’s potential and ambition for a better life. Yet, due to the social norms and cultural stigmas in the region, these forms of abuse are also often under-reported. This makes them hard to identify and quantify, and therefore a challenge to the agencies and organizations attempting to minimize, and eventually eliminate such practices.

To stand up for girls and shed a light on the best practices and programs for reducing GBV in the Arab region, CARE MENA and UNFPA-ASRO have released a report titled Stand up for Girls. The report includes stories of girls and women who have experienced various forms of GBV from six Arab states: Jordan, the Occupied Palestinian Territory (oPt), Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, and Sudan, who were able to overcome those and take back control of their lives through international and national organizational programs and succeed in their various roles and aspirations.

Among the best practices and programs that the report includes are: establishing and training community committees to raise awareness on gender-based violence, installing methods of reporting sexual harassment in the workplace, awareness sessions on human trafficking and gender-based violence, financial support programs for families to re-enroll their children back in school, and the inclusion of children and adolescents in lobbying efforts.

CARE and UNFPA released the Stand up for Girls Report at an international level during the Girls Not Brides conference which was held in Malaysia in June of this year.