(Girls at Biruh Tesfa, a safe space for in Ethiopia)

Ever stop to think about all the people who helped you along the way?

I bet there’s a long list — family, teachers, friends, band members, soccer teammates, religious leaders and more. All of these people help us get through tough times.
 
During natural and man-made disasters, schools are obliterated, families are separated, and girls are left without role models or support networks.
 
Emergency situations affect girls differently than boys. Girls eat last when food is scarce and are at a greater risk of contracting illness because of inadequate food, hygiene, and sanitation. They may face forced marriage and violence.
 
To address these challenges, girls need safe spaces to live and to go to school, access to girl-friendly health services and the opportunity to receive a quality education.

But many times, girls are invisible in times of crisis.
 
They are rarely featured in media coverage of war, and often their needs are grouped in with boys or older women. By refusing to acknowledge girls as a category of their own, humanitarian aid is missing millions of girls worldwide.
 
There are currently 140 million girls living in states affected by armed conflict.

One-hundred thousand of these girls have been forced to become child soldiers. Other girls have become war brides, which, with the breakdown of health clinics, results in early pregnancies, HIV/AIDS, miscarriages and even death.
 
In war zones, 20 million girls cannot get an education because fighting groups burn schools, schoolbooks and desks for fuel. Girls in natural disasters also face violence and exploitation.

Right now, more than 1 million girls in Somalia are fighting to survive the worst drought in our generation. Girls in Somalia marry young and face starvation.

To cope with the crisis, their fathers are selling land to feed their livestock, as opposed to feeding their families.
 
Many girls flee their homes and cross extreme distances, sometimes alone, to refugee camps in neighboring countries.

Those who are lucky enough to survive the distance, heat, dehydration, and predators, find themselves in overcrowded and unsafe camps.

The Dadaab camp in Ethiopia, where many Somali girls have fled, is built for 90,000 people, but is currently “housing” more than 465,000 refugees.
 
In refugee camps, safe spaces, health facilities, and schools are nonexistent.

Only one in ten school-age refugee girls worldwide attends school. Water, food, and fuel are far away, putting girls at great risk of being attacked while collecting these vital resources.
 
These camps are designed to be temporary, but the average time an adolescent girl spends in a refugee camp is 17 years.

That’s an entire childhood lost. 
 
Girl Up is providing Somali refugee girls in Ethiopia with a safe and healthy environment to live, learn, and play.

The UN is helping build toilets and provide access to drinking water, and girls clubs that provide a stable social network.
 
Having your family and community ripped apart is scary, but by counting girls in humanitarian response and addressing their needs, we can work together to ensure girls are safe.

Leah Meadows,

United Nations Foundation, Program Associate 

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