A Great Difference in My Life

This guest blog post was written by Fabiola, a 17 year old girl from Cameroon who flew (for the first time in her life!) to NY to participate in the 55th UN Commission on the Status of Women. Fabiola was part of a Plan led Girl Delegation which took part in high level panels, side events and caucuses. This post appears complete in its original format. you can read another girl-delegate blog here.

 

I am called Fabiola; I am 17 years old and first child out of three and the only girl. I come from Cameroon and from a rural area where girls faced a lot of problems when it comes to children’s participation. I was very happy and excited when I was chosen in our YETAM (Youth Empowerment through Technology, Arts and Media) project to represent my school, community, Plan and Cameroon as a whole in New York City to speak out during the 55^th session of the UN conference on the Commission of the Status of women.  One thing I was scared when I was still in Cameroon was the plane because I always hear of plane crash and I was not courageous but when we had to enter the plane, I prayed very hard. When the plane was to take off my heart bit very fast like I met a masquerade and as the plane fly higher I felt better since I adapted to it. I had so many experiences in the plane because I always heard that there is a toilet in the plane but saw it physically. In all, it was a great experience travelling by plane.

We arrived in New York City on the 18^th February 2011 at exactly 12noon. I could not imagine myself being in New York for 01 week with the snow and cold. When we took a car I felt a little better and safely we were in UN Millennium Plaza Hotel where we were lodged. We met with Kate Ezzes the Youth Engagement Manager from Plan USA at the Hotel and she facilitated our booking.  There were about seven different countries who were to come to US but we the delegation from Cameroon were the first to arrive New York. It was fun eating American food for the first time.

My experience in New York City was quite different from my real life because I got to learn and know so many things. I was the first girl who had to speak in the event out of 14 girls because their presentation was to start on Monday. My first presentation was not that easy because I was nervous but had courage and self esteem since I had experience presenting in other events at local and national levels in my country. However, this was my first time to participate in an event out of my country. I became excited at the end of my first presentation which took place on Sunday 20^th. I gained self confidence because everyone was impressed with the way I presented and I also let the voice of young people especially girls to be heard. This gave me courage to take part in so many side events where I had to talk from my own experience on the participation of girls in ICTs (Information Communication and Technology), Science and Mathematics.  I met with girls from different parts of the world during the side events where I learnt many things on their perception of girls in ICTs, which was very different from mine. I got to know from the girls that there are different problems faced by girls in their society. I got to know their manner of approach. It was a great pleasure meeting with girls from around the world. 

I was happy taking part in different side events because it was through this opportunity that I had to meet with important personalities from different NGOs like Plan International, Unicef and Girls scouts at Unicef building. I never knew that, attending the United Nations conference was a great opportunity for me which has made a great difference in my life. I can better express myself in public with no fear. I will continue through our YETAM project to advocate on the right of girls and also encourage the participation of girls in ICTs, science and Mathematics in my school and my community. Through this conference, I got to know so many great people like the Canadian Minister, the development officer of the United Republic of Tanzania, Grace Mwangwa just to name a few. I think this conference has made a great difference in my life which I will live to remember.        

Fabiola

You can also see Fabiola speak on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/UNGEI#p/a/u/1/_zEfWX7RIOw