Jenifer Bolt was the name of the interviewee. She is a fourth-grader at Cambridge Business School, where she is pursuing a Bachelor's degree in finance. Her parents are both teachers, and she comes from a modest family. Jenifer is the firstborn of five children and grew up in the country, which explains her exposure to city culture. She has many ambitions and goals, and her deep-seated passion, determination, and devotion have seen her through many stages of life. Jenifer received a government scholarship to attend leadership and women empowerment training thanks to the help of her parents and the community as a whole. Similarly, Jenifer has participated in several events concerning women empowerment and motivation at a high school level. Some of the broad topics that she greatly expounded on include critical thinking and decision-making, self-awareness, evaluation and confidence, education for the girl child, sex and early childhood development and many more. Several factors have motivated her not only to study finance but also to give back to the society in terms of mentorship. Her growth in a humble background and interaction with the society has created an ingrained passion and commitment to motivate the girl child. One of her greatest quotes and driving force was that once a girl child is educated the whole society is enlightened. She believes that studying finance will not only make her knowledge but will also equip her with skills that will motivate other women planning to go the same trajectory. She views this as an opportunity to not only grow her career but to also open a new channel through which she will train other girls to diversify in various fields.
Discussion
The first interview with Jenifer purposed to enquire about social movements and find out whether she was actively engaged in a social movement. According to her, social movements are groups of individuals or organizations who share a common goal or objective. She explained that the success of any social movement was in the prosperity of the group as a whole. The unity of purpose ensured that a common vision and mission that created an established passion and commitment to the set objectives propelled each member of the social movement. Likewise, she believed that social movement brought together people who wanted to see change in a particular field for example politics or even a society. The oneness not fostered success and gave them capability to handle encumbrances in comparison to one person. Likewise, social movements enabled the integration of diverse ideas and culture to ensure that people arrive to a unanimous goal to help better the society. In her early high school, she had been active in a social movement dubbed as “sustain a clean environment”. The group mainly focused on cleaning the society whereby they involved the community and the central governments to ensure sustainability of a clean environment.
They were successful in implementation of garbage and waste management plan whereby the central government, companies and schools funded the project. In her current state, she had been in a team that pioneered a social movement known as liberate the girl child at the university level. She had joined the social movement in her first year when it was inaugurated. She was assigned the task as the first year representative. The next question in the interview revolved about the changes they expected and the steps involved to publicize their movement. According to Jenifer, she had grown up in a society where the rights of the girl child were violated occasionally. In her university, there were increasing cases of rape and physical abuse of girls from all the age brackets. Her alleged classmate had been in an abusive relationship that ended up in her being murdered one of her classmates.
Additionally, one of the lecturers in the school of psychology had been burnt to death in a nearby forest and investigations had revealed that she had been stalked by her former fiancée. In addition, the basketball team had three of their team players kidnapped and raped on the eve of their tournaments. This had happened on her first year in the university. There were increasing cases of abuse that threatened the girl child. Not only did it happen in their university but it was also evident in all the leaning institutions in Cambridge and attempts by the university to fight this challenge had proved futile. Liberate the girl child movement aimed at fighting against these cases of abuse by seeking justice and reporting all the cliques involved in these crimes. Additionally, the movement aimed at enabling the victims to recover in all dimensions from emotions to physical healing. Similarly, the movement embarked on women empowerment in the long-term whereby it organized training and various platforms to empower not only girls in university level but also high school.
The movement was not restricted to the illiterate girls. It focused on society empowerment in both long term and short term. Some of the trainings included a science training and challenge that aimed at encouraging the girl child to love sciences and technical fields. Likewise, the movement also organized a training of non-educational skills including cooking, tailoring and home making with an inclusion of entrepreneurial skills with a major focus on the development of the community. Additionally, the society held occasional campaigns against violation of the girl child to invite more people to join and become part of the movement. Notably, it organized peaceful demonstrations against rape and gender discrimination that had intensified in their community.
Moreover, to increase its awareness and funding, the society wrote various letters to schools, corporates, Non-governmental organizations and the government. The letters not only invited them to participate in the activities of the society towards women empowerment but also sought for funding of the activities. In addition, the society visited various institutions recruiting members from both genders. Likewise, as a part of community engagement, it organized fun activities and retreats that aimed at bringing people together to enlighten them on the need for empowerment of the girl child. Similarly, Liberate the girl child movement also participated in community development like clean ups, trainings and games that focused on the overall growth of the community.
The proceeding of the interview revealed that, there were numerous challenges and misgivings, which slowed growth of the movement. Internally, the movement faced a challenge concerning right leadership to propel the group. Conflict arose where some of the members wanted to pioneer the carder in opposition of the selected leaders. The move amounted to some of the members withdrawing and talking ill about the movement. The attitude by some members was a source of discouragement. Moreover, some of the members were acting against the mission and vision of the society by looking for selfish material gain. The team had to make tough decisions to suspend such members from the activities of the group. This created a conflict where several people raised their opinions against that act.
The movement also experienced deep challenges in recruiting their members. Most people believed that the social movement would be a gender bias because it mainly focused on development of the girl child. Similarly, some people failed to join the group claiming that it failed to at least consider ways to develop the boy child and would be an act of favor of one gender against the other. Other people believed that girls needed to be deeply engaged in the social movement in comparison to the participation of the male gender. Some of the members that had been recruited also became a challenge to the team. A section of members were reluctant in commitment to the activities of the group. Additionally, some failed to invest time and energy in the activities of the group. This declined the level of commitment to the activities of the group which discouraged not only the leadership but also some of the members. This was an act against the mission and vision of the group.
Financial budgets and funding were a source of disillusionment to the activities of the group. Some of the ways that the group used to acquire funds included the contribution made by each member as membership fee. However, some of their campaigns and community projects greatly required funds. As they solicited for funds from corporates and other organization, their efforts bore little fruits as some organizations declined to offer help. Likewise, the beginning of the social movement was challenged by lack of governmental or central governmental support. This called for members to willingly contribute extra amounts of money to fund for their activities. This was a source of discouragement to the team leading to withdrawal of some members. Other members complained that the funds were mismanaged which tainted the reputation of the social movement.
One of the greatest pride and joy that gave the Liberty of the girl child strength to forge forward was the freedom of some of the rape and abuse victims. The social movement was renowned for aggressiveness in quest for justice to ensure that the society thrived in morality. In addition, the girl child was empowered since more females arose to join the social movement to share their various experiences, pain and challenges as a way of encouraging others to find hope in their situations. Furthermore, there was evidence that the movement had a great influence towards transforming lives of the illiterate as they arose to take up opportunities in technical skills. Additionally the group was able to ensure reduction in cases of violence and abuse against the girl child and rape cases subsidized. There was evidence that the girl child had gained an ingrained confidence to face the future. In the second year of the social movement, there was increased membership and participation in the activities. Some corporates and Non-governmental organizations expressed their interest to be a part of the movement. There was raised funding for activities which gave the team financial capability to conduct their activities not only at the university level but also at a community level.
The central government supported the community projects that included cleaning up environment. Some of the governmental officials participated in giving back to the community in conjunction to the team to train on the importance of quality healthy living. Similarly, some of the community representatives welcomed the team members to the community giving them a chance to engage interactively with the community members to equip them with skills in various aspects. This social movement was effective in addressing some of the challenges and needs of the community.
However, some of their peaceful demonstrations had captured the attention of the police who ambushed them and injured some of the members. Likewise, the university had restricted the team from holding some of the public rallies to campaign for the rights of the girl child. This was a source of conflict. Student members believed that it was their right to hold the demonstrations within the university without any interference. Also, some of the community projects faced opposition from human activists who had a bad notion that any individual had an ability to make their own decisions and choices.
A continuation of the interview had benefited Jenifer greatly. She was able to manage her time effectively and create a balance of the activities as well as her studies. She developed her communication skills by gaining confidence and courage to stand before a large crowd and discuss specific topics. As a mentor, she improved by gaining skills to address different types of audience to insight them on various topics. Jennifer was able to interact with different types of people in her team and the movement as a whole thereby promoting her extra personal skills (Routledge Taylor and francis group 818).
In comparison to the Mexican student movement in 1968, the student movement arose from a street fight between high school students after a football game. The students had an open confrontation with the Mexican City riot police to pacify the situation. The student resisted for several hours. The army undertook measures to calm the situation. Unfortunately, several students were killed. The principle cause of the riot was the violence exerted by the police officers against the rioting students. Over the concurrent months, Mexico witnessed series of student’s rallies and protests against the acts of violence and suppression. In both movements, there was a key objective and reason for both formation of the movement and protests. In both, the participants of the social movements had a voice against a specific threat to humanity. Likewise, the movements focused on restoration of justice against human existence.
In both situations, the students expected the government to listen and heed to their demands. Both parties trusted in the supremacy of the legitimate law. In both parties, they had a confidence and trust in the ability of the government to remain unbiased in solving issues within their citizenship. Additionally, both groups experienced resilience from the government. In the Mexican student protest, the president expressed his discontentment in the protests and unrests (Vivienne 241). In the Liberate the girl child, the members were discouraged by slow governmental response to fund for their activities. Likewise, in both movements, there is no indication of government response against the crimes against humanity for example rape cases and violence. In both situations, the government only responded to the street protests and unrests (Zolov 45)
Also, the two movements experienced discouraging situations that threatened their unity but humanity. In the Mexico students protest, thousands of students had gathered to listen to the objectives and resolutions of the movements (Vivienne 244). By the end of the meeting, soldiers came to arrest the leaders of the movement. An organized troop that shot against the police maliciously amounted to a shooting that lasted for close to three hours. There were dozens of uncountable bodies of students who had been massacred in that conflict. Efforts of the student’s leaders and other prosecutors to document the number of the dead bodies turned futile because they did not get the exact count of the dead bodies (Routledge taylor and Francis group 800). This is an act of violation of human rights. In the Liberate girl child movement, members also experienced situations that threatened the existence of the movement.
Conclusion
Success of any social movement is highly dependent on the commitment of the members to remain consistent and focused on the goals and objectives they aim at achieving. In the face of opposition, the leadership should gear the team members towards actualizing the set objectives. They should ensure that all their activities are held in adherence to the laws of the country to gain favor of the government and other corporates. I have bonded well with the assignment at hand following the activities that the movement championed which played a pivotal role towards upholding human rights and protection of girl child.
Works Cited
Vivienne. "The evolution of urban popular movements in Mexico between 1968 and 1988." The making of social movements in Latin America: Identity, strategy, and democracy (1992): 240-59.
Routledge taylor and Francis group. "Cleaning the cage: Mexico's city preparation for olympic games." The international journal of history of sport 26.6, 2009: 790-813.
Routledge Taylor and francis group. "The Mexican student movement of 1968: an olympic perspective." international journal of History of sport 26.6, 2009: 814-839.
Zolov. "Towards an analytical framework for assesing the impact of the 1968 student movement on US- Mexican relations." journal of iberian and latin american research 9.2 2012: 41-68.
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