Bermuda's girls strut their stuff

Sarah Lagan

Published Oct 22, 2018 at 8:00 am (Updated Oct 22, 2018 at 7:40 am)

The fourth annual International Day of the Girl took place on North Field at the National Sports Centre yesterday afternoon. Pictured- Quin Burgess 5, tries out B Active For Life activities (Photograph by Akil Simmons)
Christina Lee (Photograph by Sarah Lagan)
The fourth annual International Day of the Girl took place on North Field at the National Sports Centre yesterday afternoon. Pictured- Vanessa Scott with daughter Emanuelle Iaxx 4 having fun (Photograph by Akil Simmons)
The fourth annual International Day of the Girl took place on North Field at the National Sports Centre yesterday afternoon. Pictured- Bermuda Fencing Federation (Photograph by Akil Simmons)
The fourth annual International Day of the Girl took place on North Field at the National Sports Centre yesterday afternoon. (Photograph by Akil Simmons)
The fourth annual International Day of the Girl took place on North Field at the National Sports Centre yesterday afternoon (Photograph by Akil Simmons)
The fourth annual International Day of the Girl took place on North Field at the National Sports Centre yesterday afternoon (Photograph by Akil Simmons)
The fourth annual International Day of the Girl took place on North Field at the National Sports Centre yesterday afternoon (Photograph by Akil Simmons)
The fourth annual International Day of the Girl took place on North Field at the National Sports Centre yesterday afternoon. Pictured: Sophia Cannonie,r owner of Lotus, right, demonstrates how to use the Lyra aerial ring (Photograph by Akil Simmons)
The fourth annual International Day of the Girl took place on North Field at the National Sports Centre yesterday afternoon (Photograph by Akil Simmons)
The fourth annual International Day of the Girl took place on North Field at the National Sports Centre yesterday afternoon. Pictured: Patrick Dill, left, and Sophia Davidge, 4, at the Bermuda Fencing Federation station (Photograph by Akil Simmons)
The fourth annual International Day of the Girl took place on North Field at the National Sports Centre yesterday afternoon. Pictured: Lara Patterson, 5 (Photograph by Akil Simmons)
The fourth annual International Day of the Girl took place on North Field at the National Sports Centre yesterday afternoon. Pictured: Lara Patterson, 5 (Photograph by Akil Simmons)

Bermuda’s girls tried out a range of activities that are not traditionally marketed towards them while learning about gender inequality yesterday.

The International Day of the Girl held at the National Stadium offered them the opportunity to learn about sports such as rugby, fencing, archery, football and cricket, as well as other activities including coding and robotics.

The event was launched four years ago by Carolyn Thomas Ray and her husband Christopher Ray.

Ms Ray said: “I became aware of the International Day of the Girl which was set up by the United Nations in 2012 to recognise the challenges that girls have due to their gender.

“This can include exclusion from education, being forced into marriage and other general disadvantages.

“Forced marriage is not relevant here but other things like sexual abuse are, which affects a high proportion of girls compared with boys.

“The idea for the Bermuda event is to introduce girls to activities they may or may not have had a chance to try, maybe because they are male dominated.

“The other aspect is to educate people about some of the challenges that girls face around the world.”

Wolete James attended the event for the first time with her daughter, Amiya, 9, who tried her hand at fencing.

Ms James said: “It is really good for girls to come and see activities that are available to them. You learn about different activities — I didn’t know that they had mother-and-daughter cricket. Amiya does aerial and soccer, she loves it.

“She doesn’t do the typical things for girls like dance and ballet — she likes to try things that are out of the box. She has done cricket at school before, she is interested in different sports.”

Christina Lee, 7, has been to the event three years in a row.

“I like it because it has lots of different activities. It’s really fun. I did the empowerment art and I made a bracelet with Frontier Girls [a Scout like group],” she said.

“I like trying different activities — I played rugby one time. I like that you can touch the ball — with soccer you have to use your feet to kick the ball.”

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