Teenage girls in Burma find their voices to defend their rights

Teenage girls in Burma find their voices to defend their rights

A programme that encourages leadership skills and self-confidence is helping young women to prevent abuse and dream of brighter futures


The Girl Determined programme builds confidence and helps girls and young women speak openly about puberty. Photograph: Andrew Stanbridge


Dau Naw, a 12-year-old girl wearing a wide smile, lopsided bunches of hair and a slightly grubby floral dress, sits in a circle on the bamboo floor with a dozen adolescent girls.
She has a nature so animated that she frequently reduces the rest of the group to helpless giggles. But her humour doesn’t detract from the disturbing nature of the stories she and the other girls share: of the violence and bloodshed during the war in Kachin state that has forced them to flee their homes.

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In traditional Burmese culture – where men are considered superior to women and young people are bound to defer to their elders – adolescent girls are widely expected to keep their thoughts, feelings and opinions to themselves. As a result, abuses go unreported and many girls remain ignorant of their human rights or potential.

The Girl Determined programme involves girls gathering for weekly meetings over eight months. Activities, led by local trained facilitators, include planting and nurturing a seed, decorating and keeping a journal, and sport. They also cover issues such as decision-making, self-confidence, girls’ rights and planning for the future.

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Girl Determined aims to encourage self-confidence in one of Burma’s most marginalised groups: teenage girls Photograph: Andrew Stanbridge



In the camps, the girls say they often feel afraid. Women’s organisations such as the Women’s League of Burma have documented numerous cases of rape in ethnic communities by members of the armed forces, and the girls in the camps find themselves confined in close quarters with strangers. Alcohol abuse is common among men, and the girls are often frightened to go out at night.

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http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2015/feb/11/teenage-girls-burma-girl-determined