Imagine a garden growing right in the middle of your town One half of the garden is lush and healthy It gets all the sunshine and water and attention that it needs to thrive The other half is wilted and faded The neighborhood dogs have dug holes harming the roots and seeds Careless visitors have trampled the seedlings and sprouts Passersby plucked blossoms preventing fruit from growing And sometimes people sprayed chemicals on the plants mistaking them for weeds But what happens if the entire garden is allowed to flourish and reach its full potential The neglected half will be able to catch up and grow strong and healthy too Just as gardens need to be nurtured so that they can thrive on their own so do people But for a long time half the children of the world the girls have been treated unfairly often denied the same schooling freedom safety and care given to boys
In 2011 a group of girls from around the world were invited to the United Nations UN in New York City where they gave voice to the issues affecting girls and only girls in their communities Moved to take action world leaders agreed that one way to help cultivate gender equality giving girls and boys equal opportunities and care would be to create a special day to focus on solving problems that affect girls in particular For this reason every October 11 we now celebrate the International Day of the Girl Child The millions of girls who inspired this important day also helped inspire the characters and stories in this book Their experiences remind us how even the youngest of us can overcome challenges and make positive change in our communities and beyond every day
