International day of the girl takeover

This October across the world, girls stepped into the shoes of Ambassadors, Mayors, heads of educational institutions, and business leaders to show that girls can be leaders and decision makers and have their voice heard on the challenges they face. About 1500 “takeovers” were facilitated by Plan International globally.

Accordingly, The Royal Norwegian embassy in Cairo was delighted to host today Miss Kamelia to be the ambassador for the day. Kamilia was one of 68 Egyptian girls who “took over” for one day the positions of 40 high-level officials in Egypt, including the Egyptian Minister of Social Solidarity, Security General of the National Council of Childhood and Motherhood, senior leaders from the Egyptian government, ambassadors from 19 embassies in Egypt, heads of UN agencies, and civil society leaders.

Kamelia, 21, is from Giza and started her involvement in girls’ empowerment by participating in “Our Space” Project, which creates space for youth to voice their issues and engage in overcoming social challenges.

During her one day as ambassador of Norway to Egypt, Kamelia learned about the daily workings of the mission through several meetings with the staff. She engaged in discussions with the ambassador and deputy ambassador on how to encourage and facilitate boys’ and girls’ empowerment and leadership skills.

During these discussions, Kamelia talked about what she learned about early marriage from participating in ‘Our Space’ Project and why she is against it by saying ‘how come a child can raise a child’. Kamelia expressed her wish to raise more awareness sessions for women in Egypt about early marriages.

Ambassador Kamelia attended with the other Nordic ambassadors for the day in a lunch meeting, where topics such as youth leadership, inequality and education for all were discussed.
Norway’s ambassador to Egypt, Sten Arne Rosnes was very happy to work together with Kamilia for one day, and expressed “Norway now has a female prime minister for the second time in our modern history. Egypt can be proud having had the most famous female leader ever (Cleopatra). It’s very important to promote education and leadership training for young people; this is the best investment in our common future.”    

The day was concluded with the International Day of the Girl Summit, hosted by Minister of Social Solidarity Dr. Ghada Wali.