Why do people volunteer with United Nations Association Coventry Branch? This is why Rosalinda Birdinia volunteers. She is a first year student of International Relations at Coventry University.

I am so disheartened by the current situation. People engaging in endless war, like the one in Syria. People living in fear because of the threat from extremists like ISIS. People hating other people just because they come from different races. Women suffering because society neglects their rights. Children growing more vulnerable.

These things happen when people focus more on their differences rather than on the things they have in common. That leads into irreconcilable conflicts that cause more innocent people to become victimized. While in fact we are actually all the same: we are all human beings that need each other and all we need is love. It is only the social system and prejudice that sorts people into different boxes according to their race, religion, gender and beliefs. That is what makes all of us seem different and makes one group become superior to another.

I would like to join United Nations Association Coventry Branch (UNACov) and fully committing myself to begin my journey in building a better version of the world. A world where people feel safe and loved. Where they finally feel they belong to this world no matter who they are, what they do and where they come from.

I also have a deep interest in gender inequality. We claim that we live in a modern world driven by globalization and technological advancement where everyone has equal rights and opportunities to succeed.  But ironically women’s rights are far from equal to men’s. In our modern world, women still struggle to have proper education for several reasons such as culture, war and poverty.

According to UNICEF, every year 15 million girls are forced into marriage and one in every three girls in the developing world is married by the age of 18 (BBC 2015). The global number of children dropping out of school every year after primary school age is rising. It now stands at 59 million, 30 million of them live in sub-Saharan Africa and 10 million in South and West Asia (BBC 2015). According to UNESCO, the completion rate for girls in primary school is below 50% in most poor countries. The Syrian war also affects the opportunity for women’s education. In December 2013, 4.8 million school-age children were out of school ( BBC 2015).

The other issue regarding inequality is society’s perception of rape. The rape issue is increasing in today’s society.  In India, a woman is reportedly raped every 15 minutes (The Daily Beast 2015).  Sadly most of these cases are not reported and women are often accused of being the cause while they are actually the victim.

Another inequality issue shows in our political system. People emphasize the value of liberal democracy, yet women are still hindered from entering the governmental sector and they are under-represented within the system.

Therefore I hope by joining UNACov I will be able to continue the struggle of Simone de Beauvoir and Emmeline Pankhurst to achieve gender equality. To fight for what women actually deserve. I hope UNACov is able to form a variety of events, seminars and campaigns to promote gender equality and raise the awareness of people towards gender inequality. I am also hoping UNACov are able to undergo real action such as forming a team that will be sent to those developing countries with a high number of uneducated girls to build schools for them. I am hoping on International Women’s day UNACov will hold a variety of events in relation to equality for women.

References

The educational struggle faced by girls around the world – BBC News

We’ve Forgotten About India’s Rape Crisis – Daily Beast