Unlock the intelligence passion greatness of girls Leymah Gbowee

many times I go around the world to

speak and people ask me questions about

the challenges my movements some of my

regrets 1998 a single mother for three

months after the birth of my fourth

child I went to do a job as a research

assistant went or not in Liberia and as

part of the work the village will give

you lodgings and they gave me lodging

with a single mother and her daughter

this girl happened to be the only girl

in the entire village who had made it to

the ninth grade she was the

laughingstock of the community her

mother was often told by other women you

and your child will die for after two

weeks of working in that village it was

time to go back the mother came to me

knelt down and said Lima take my

daughter I wish for her to be a nurse

dirt pool living in a home with my

parents

according a photo with tears in my eyes

I said no two months later I go to

another village on the same assignment

and it asked me to live with the village

chief the woman’s chief of the village

has this little girl fair color like me

totally dirty and all day she walked

around only in her own nowhere when I

asked who is that she says that’s we the

meaning of her name is pink

her mother died while giving birth to

her and no one had any idea who her

father was

for two weeks she became my companion

slept with me

I bought her youths clothes and bought

her her first doll the night before I

left she came to the room and said Lima

don’t leave me here I wish to go with

you I wish to go to school

dirt poor no money living with my

parents I again said no two months later

both of those villages fell into another

war till today I have no idea where

those two girls are fast-forward 2004 in

the peak of our activism the minister of

gender Liberia called me and said we

might have a nine-year-old for you I

want you to bring her home because we

don’t have safe homes the story of this

little girl she had been raped by her

paternal grandfather every day for six

months she came to me bloated very pill

every night I come from working lie on a

cold floor she lies beside me and said

auntie I wish to be well I wish to go to

school 2010 our young woman stand before

President Sirleaf and give her a

testimony of how she and her siblings

live together their father and mother

died during the war

she’s 19 her dream is to go to college

to be able to support them she’s highly

athletic one of the things that happens

is that she applied for scholarships for

scholarship she gets it her dream of

going to school who wish of being

educated is finally here she goes to

school on the first day the director of

sports who’s responsible for getting her

into the program asked her to come out

of class and for the next three years of

faith we’ll be having sex with him every

day as favor forgetting her in school

globally we have policies

international instruments world leaders

great people have made commitment we

will protect our children from want and

from fear the UN has the Convention on

the Rights of the Child countries like

America we’ve heard things like No Child

Left Behind other countries come with

different things there is a Millennium

Development Goal tree that focuses on

girls all of these great work by great

people aimed at getting young people to

where we want to get them globally I

think has filmed in Liberia for example

teenage pregnancy rate is 3 so every ten

girls teen prostitution is at its peak

in one community we told you wake up in

the morning and see use condoms like use

chewing gum paper girls as young as 12

being prostituted for less than a dollar

or night is this happening is sad and

then someone asks me just before my

tech-talk few days ago so where is the

hope several years ago few friends of

mine decided we needed to bridge the

disconnect between our generation and a

generation of young women it’s not

enough to say you have to Nobel

laureates

from the Republic of Liberia when your

girl states are totally out there and no

hope or seemingly no hope we created a

space for the young girls transformative

project we go into rural communities and

all we do like has been done in this

room is create this space when these

girls sit you unlock intelligence you

unlock passion you unlock commitment you

unlock focus you unlock great leaders

today we’ve worked with over 300 and

some of those girls who walked in the

room very shy have taken bold steps as

young mothers to go out there and

advocate for the

rights of other young women one young

woman I met teen mother of four never

taught about finishing high school

graduated successfully never thought

about going to college

enroll in college one day she said to me

my wishes to finish college and be able

to support my children she’s at a place

where she can’t find money to go to

school she sells water sell soft drink

and sell recharge card for cell phones

and you would think she would take that

money and put it back into her education

one interest her name she takes that

money and find single mothers in her

community to send back to school says

Lima my wish is to be educated and if I

can’t be educated when I see some of my

sisters being educated my wish has been

fulfilled I wish for a better life I

wish for food for my children I wish

that sexual abuse and exploitation in

schools were stopped this is the dream

of the African girl several years ago

there was one African girl this girl had

a son who wish for a piece of donut

because he was extremely hungry angry

frustrated really upset about the state

of her society and the state of her

children

this young girl started a movement a

movement of ordinary women banding

together to build peace I will fulfill

the wish this is another African girls

wish I fail to fulfill the wish of those

two girls I fail to do this these were

the things that would go into the head

of this other young woman I failed I

failed I failed so I will do this we may

came out protested a brutal d-tector

fearlessly spoke not only did the wish

of a piece of donor come true the wish

of peace came true this young woman we

also to go to school she went to school

this young woman wish for other things

to happen it happened for her today this

young woman is me a Nobel laureate I’m

now on a journey to fulfill the wish in

my tiny capacity of little African girls

a wish I’ve been educated we set up a

foundation we’re giving full four-year

scholarships to girls from villages that

we see with potential I don’t have much

to acts of you I’ve also been to places

in this US and I know that girls in this

country also have wish wish for a better

life somewhere in the Bronx wish for a

better life somewhere in downtown LA

wish for a better life somewhere in

Texas wish for a better life somewhere

in New York wish for a better life

somewhere in New Jersey will you journey

with me to help that girl be at an

African girl or an American girl or a

Japanese girl fulfill her wish fulfilled

her dream achieved that dream because

all of these great innovators and

inventors that we’ve talked to and sing

over the last few days are also sitting

in tiny corners in different parts of

the world and all they’re asking us to

do is create that space to unlock the

intelligence unlock the passion unlock

all of the great things that they hold

within themselves

let’s journey together let’s journey

together thank you

thank you so much right now in Liberia

what do you see as the main issue that

troubles you I’ve been asked to lead the

Liberian reconciliation initiative as

part of my work I’m doing these tours in

different villages and towns 1315 hours

on dirt roads and there is no community

that I’ve gone into that I haven’t seen

intelligent girls but sadly the vision

of a great future or the dream of a

great future is just a dream because we

have all of these vices teen pregnancy

like I said is epidemic so what troubles

me is that I’m hours at that place and

somehow I’m at this place and I just

don’t want to be the only one at this

place I’m looking for ways for other

girls to be with me I want to look back

20 years from now and see that there’s

another Liberian girl Ghanaian girl

Nigerian girl it’s European girl

standing on this stage and maybe just

maybe saying because of that Nobel

laureate I’m here today so I’m troubled

when I see them like there’s no hope but

I’m also not pessimistic because I know

it doesn’t take a lot to get them

charged up and in the last year tell us

one hopeful thing that you’ve seen

happening I can tell you many hopeful

things that I’ve seen happening but in

the last year where President Sirleaf

comes from her village we went there to

work with these girls and we could not

find 25 girls in high school all of

these girls went to the gold mine and

they were predominantly prostitutes

doing other things

we took fifty of those girls and we

works with them and this was at the

beginning of elections this is one place

where women were never even the older

ones barely sat in the circle with the

men

these girls banded together and form a

group and launched a campaign for voters

registration this is a real rural

village and the team they used was even

pretty girls would they were able to

mobilize young women but not only did

they do that they went to those who were

running for seats to ask them what is it

that you gave the girls of this

community when you win and one of the

guys who already had the seat was very

because Liberia has one of the strongest

rape law and he was one of those really

fighting in Parliament to overturn that

law because he called it barbaric rape

is not by Barry but the law he said it

was my barrack and when the girl started

engaging him he was very hostile towards

them these little girls turned to him

and said we will watch you out of office

his out of office today

thank you thank you so much go ahead

thank you

you