CityU's Department of Asian and International Studies (AIS) co-organised the 6th "Girls Get Equal" Youth Conference with Plan International, which comprised a series of online training workshops and a conference, from January to March 2021. The programme aims to encourage young people to learn more about international affairs and foster a sense of global citizenship among them. The organisers expect to see participants engaged in girls' rights going forward in their capacity as citizens, researchers and activists.
This year, a total of 44 CityU students and secondary school students participated. They teamed up to conduct desk research, public speaking and social media campaign to introduce different girls' issues in developing countries and make suggestions for improving public awareness on those issues. Prior to the conference, three training workshops were held to deepen participants' knowledge on girls' issues in developing countries and equip them with research, presentation and social media engagement skills. Moreover, 14 facilitators were invited to guide the participants throughout the programme. "These social efforts should help build a new movement wherein girls become more powerful forces for change in their communities," says Dr Justin ROBERTSON, Associate Professor at AIS.
The participants fully demonstrated what they had learnt from the workshops and their effort to prepare the presentations at the conference held on 27 March 2021. They were able to adopt critical but solutions-oriented approaches in their research around topics including teen pregnancy, girl's education, female genital mutilation, trafficking of girls, impacts of COVID-19 to girl's rights, menstrual hygiene, and more girls' issues. Their findings and analyses were shared with expert judges and fellow students through informative and persuasive presentations and reached the wider community through dedicated social media campaigns they have run earlier.
Discussing the barriers to girl's education in Pakistan, the team from Queen Elizabeth School was selected as the best presentation team of the secondary school section. Meanwhile, the team arguing that periods don't stop for pandemic won the best presentation team of the university section. An award presentation was held on 7 May 2021, in which Professor Christian WAGNER, Provost of CityU, and representatives from the host organisations, presented awards to the best presentation teams and presenters.
Apart from allowing participants to showcase the individual ability and teamwork spirit, the programme also exemplifies interdisciplinarity by having students from eight CityU departments came together to form research teams. CityU participants also interacted closely with teams from seven secondary schools, thereby strengthening ties between the university and local secondary school students.
Photo 1: Participants from the university section introduced their social media campaign.
Photo 2: Students from Queen Elizabeth School scooped the Best Presentation Team and Best Campaign Award with their research on the risks and obstacles faced by Pakistan school-aged girls.
Photo 3: The best presentation team from CityU conducted research on the huge impact of period poverty and stigma on girls’ education and made suggestions for improvement.
