The world needs to know
"Being a girl is not an easy task. It takes a lot of motivation and opportunity to achieve gender equality,” says 12-year-old Alana who lives in Codó municipality in Maranhão, Brazil.
A student and aspiring entrepreneur, Alana says she feels frustrated that she doesn’t see many women in business, mostly just men. Referring to a World Economic Forum estimate, Alana says, “It will take 131 years to achieve gender equality. People need to know about this so they can reflect on it. They have to think about what they can do so that girls can exercise our rights.”
After joining Plan International’s Cambalhotas (which roughly translates as ‘Backflips’) project, which focuses on girls’ rights and gender equality, Alana says she learnt a lot. "When I joined the project, I learnt a lot of things. I learnt how to defend myself if something happens to me. I didn’t know all my rights, so I was able to learn some of them through the project. I want all children to learn what I learnt, I always teach them everything I know."
Speaking of her dreams, Alana has many aspirations and she believes that girls can have any career they want and should be valued in all positions. One of her life goals is to write a self-help book. "I would like to write a book describing how we can change our lives, helping young people improve at school. Today, I know that I can be a businesswoman and want to share information with other people so they can also become whatever they want to be."
