Lucie Reiss, Priyanka Voruganti and Sofia Baghdade were privileged to have the great opportunity to intern for Ruchira Gupta this summer in New York and work on The Last Girl Campaign which will be launched this fall by Ruchira Gupta to hold the United Nations accountable to reach Goal 5.2 of the Sustainable Development Goals which aims to “eliminate all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including trafficking and sexual and other types of exploitation” by 2030. Ruchira believes that Goal 5.2 cannot be achieved if the Basic Needs of the Last Girl are not me. These needs include Food, Clothing, Shelter, Education, and Social and Legal Protection
Our first task as interns this summer was to familiarize ourselves with The UN Sustainable Development Goals and identify which of the goals and targets highlight the basic needs of the most vulnerable girl -The Last Girl.
The Last Girl is the 13 year old in a brothel or the 15 year old standing at a street corner. She is the most vulnerable of all human beings to sexual exploitation because her access to food, clothing, shelter, education and legal protection are cut off because she is a poor, female teenager. She could be Black or Native American in the USA, a refugee in Europe, or low-caste in India.
We wrote up a 17 page document listing every goal/ target which addresses The Last Girl. We then all agreed that although there were many goals that pertained to the safety and well being go the most vulnerable girls the, sections the were the most urgent to address re 5.2 include Target 8.7 (forced labor and child labor) and Target 16.2 (all other forms of child trafficking.
Next we drafted a petition to The Secretary General to the UN and asked them to agree to continue to commit to section 5.2 of the Sustainable development Goals and to make an effort to include The Last Girl in all of the SDGs. We posted this petition on Change .org and are gathering signatures now. We also researched and prepared infographics to promote the petition on instagram, facebook and twitter.
The last thing we did was write a speech deliver to the General Assembly on behalf of Girls for the Last Girl. The General Assembly meets in september to discuss the Global Plan of Action to End Sex Trafficking. This occurs once every four years so it is crucial that our voice be heard now to encourage the UN to do everything they can to End SEX TRAFFICKING.
Please sign our petition now!!!!!!