Malta has to pull up its socks and make serious efforts if wants to meet the targets laid down by the United Nations to achieve equality and a fully inclusive society by 2030, according to President Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca.

“We’re already too late in reaching our goals. Let’s collaborate and determine how we can commit to delivering full equality,” she urged.

President Coleiro Preca was referring to the UN Sustainable Development Goal 5, which is geared to achieve gender equality and empower women to accelerate sustainable development.

In a bid to do her part and start a movement towards achieving these goals, President Coleiro Preca encouraged 17 women’s organisations to come together under one umbrella to secure a stronger voice in the debate for equality.

Called emPOWer, this new platform was launched today, October 11, during the events marking the International Day of the Girl Child, that took place simultaneously in Malta, Brussels and Canada.

This platform, which is being supported by the President’s Foundation for the Wellbeing of Society, is also focused on ensuring that girls grow up in full confidence and become strong women and leaders.

“As Malta this year marks the 70th anniversary of universal suffrage from when Maltese women obtained the right to vote, we want to set the tone to ensure there are enough role models to inspire young girls to believe they can play an equal role in the country’s decision-making process,” Ms Coleiro Preca said.

“I appeal to university students to collaborate in every way they can to ensure young women set the pace for full equality,” she told those gathered at the KSU Common Room, at the University of Malta.

During the event there was an intervention by the Network of Young Women Leaders who recounted the experience of undergoing #IamRemarkable workshops, as well as a panel discussion led by Ruth Farrugia, the director general of the President’s Foundation for the Wellbeing of Society.

Today’s event included an inspiring talk by Assita Kanko, a Girl2Leader ambassador and a WPL Global Forum special senior advisor.

Ms Kanko spoke about growing up in a remote village in Burkina Faso in West Africa, with no access to water or electricity and no hope for a bright future, except getting married and “having as many children as my husband wants”.

“But I didn’t agree with it. As a child I constantly refused to comply. But girls should obey, so I was considered a bad girl. This creates a feeling of guilt and stops us from achieving and realising our purpose,” she said.

She spoke about how she would run away from the kitchen chores to spend time with her father, who was a teacher, reading books under a tree.

“If being a bad girl is the way to achieve our goals, then I liked being a bad girl.”

At the age of five, she underwent the horrible experience of female genital mutilation in a dirty, derelict house where nobody cared about her excruciating pain and nobody explained.

“I soon realised I was cut because I was a girl, and because they didn’t want me to become the woman I dreamt of becoming. It was all about domination,” she recalled.

Ms Assita refused to give up and her father taught her to find a way around obstacles. Today she is a politician in Belgium, where she lives and works tirelessly as an ambassador for women and young girls.

“Never say something is impossible. I want to continue contributing to make the world a better space for women. It’s important to remember what gives us strength. We are taught to be less in the world simply because we have a vagina, but we will not submit.”