Young girls around the globe have covered Beyoncé’s ‘Freedom’ in a video marking International Day of the Girl Child.
The video from Project Everyone and directed by British filmmaker MJ Delaney, covers topics such as child marriage, female genital mutilation, domestic violence and human trafficking. Delaney shot the video in various locations including Tanzania and Washington, DC.
The video is part of the #FreedomForGirls campaign and is supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Global Goals initiative and UNICEF.
The campaign follows last year’s video remake of the Spice Girls ‘Wannabe’, which supported the #WhatIReallyReallyWant campaign. The video went viral and saw women and girls highlighting issues such as violence against women, underage marriage and equal pay for equal work.
International Day of the Girl Child has been celebrated since 2012. It aims to highlight and address the needs and challenges girls face, while promoting girls’ empowerment and the fulfilment of their human rights.
Speaking about the video, Delaney said, “The global political landscape has changed dramatically in the last year – a warm celebration of female solidarity is no longer enough.”
“This year’s film is defiant and demands change, with much younger girls giving a voice to a whole generation of little girls for whom it’s imperative that the Global Goals are met by 2030.”
Kate Garvey, co-founder of Project Everyone, said, “I hope by next year when leaders gather in New York again for Goalkeepers we are able to point to more progress around those issues such as access to education, ending child marriage and ending violence against girls.”
“If we are to hit the goals by 2030 there’s a lot of work still to be done.”
“This is a timely opportunity to bring the voices of girls to the front of the campaign to achieve them.”
