A candidate in last year’s local elections is appealing to friends and well-wishers across Ireland to help in her bid for the Vodafone World of Difference award programme.
“I applied for the Vodafone World of Difference programme this year to get a chance to work with Plan Ireland’s ‘Because I am a Girl’ campaign, which aims to highlight the real issues facing girls in the developing world,” explains Benedicta Attoh, who ran in last summer’s local elections on the Fine Gael ticket.
“As a former child bride I am very aware of those issues, which include trafficking, lack of access to education and FGM.”
Attoh says she was attracted to the Vodafone programme as it offers her an opportunity to work with Plan Ireland in raising awareness and gaining support for girls’ rights.
“I believe passionately in this because I was one of those little girls,” she says. “In an era that coined the term ‘girl power’ millions of girls are still condemned to a life of inequality and poverty.”
The Nigerian, who is also a Plan Ireland ambassador, says she’s backing the organisation because any opportunity to raise awareness of the situation is a benefit.
“It is beneficial for girls in Ireland, too,” she adds, “because they would be motivated to believe that they can be whatever they aspire to become in life, appreciate the benefits they have and understand how they can make a real difference to the future for not only girls but for everyone.”
Asked what impact she could make if she were to win the award, Attoh says she would “reach out to schools, groups and communities around Ireland, encouraging women from politics and business to support the campaign” as well as “gaining public and media attention, lobbying for change and generating support for projects for girls in the poorest communities in the world by sharing my experience of growing up as one of those girls.”
Attoh adds: “I believe that no other child should go through this, and my passion that investing in girls is the key to ending the cycle of poverty.”
Readers can vote for Benedicta Attoh by visiting the Vodafone World of Difference programme’s official Facebook page (tinyurl.com/32caxhs). Voting closes on 30 May.
