In response to 2011 United Nations designation of October 11th as "International Day of the Girl Child ", the Executive Yuan has ordered October 11 as "Taiwan Girls Day". The Ministry of Education hosted the "Taiwan Girls Day- Microfilm and Photo Storytelling Competition" award ceremony on October 8, 2019, and actively promoted the meaning of "International Day of the Girl Child" and "Taiwan Girls Day".

   

In order to promote the spirit of the Taiwan Girls Day, the Ministry of Education has conducted a micro-film and photo storytelling competition in 2019. It hoped that teachers of all levels will explain the meaning of "International Day of the Girl Child" and "Taiwan Girls Day" through their teaching. Students from elementary schools and junior high schools can use photos to do their storytelling. Students from high schools and colleges can use creative microfilms to showcase and strengthen the awareness in protecting girls' rights and gender equality.

 

In this competition, there were 105 submissions of photo storytelling, and 25 submissions of micro-movies. After rounds of preliminaries and final reviews by experts and scholars from fields such as gender equality education, photography, media and creative writing, a total of 25 works and 42 students from all 4 levels of school were selected for award.

 

In the photo storytelling competition section, the winner of the elementary school group is Chen Yi’s work "Girl! Goal! Women's dreams! Women's dreams!". The story is based on her personal life experience in the process of learning to play soccer. It emphasized the notion that girls can choose their own love, and no need to be bounded by gender stereotype, and should bravely pursue their dreams. The winner of the junior high school group is Xu Wei, whose work is titled "Only you can define yourself." It showcased a vigorous self-identification process to be own self through images with deep meaning. In the microfilm competition, the film titled "Dare”, which was co-produced by five students from the Washington High School in Taichung City, showed the inner struggles and efforts of women in different roles has won the first place in the high school group. The winner in the college group was filmed by Ye Yushuang of Fo Guang University. The film showcased a story between a girl and her sport, and narrated how the lead character was determined to achieve her goal.

 

The award ceremony also included a dance performance, "girls’ power”, by students from the National Taiwan University of Science and Technology Dance Club. It showcased the vibrant and confident style of Taiwanese girls.

 

The Ministry of Education is looking forward to organizing the "Taiwan Girls Day" related activities in order to enhance schools’ awareness and attention to girls' rights; strengthen girls' participation in the fields of science and technology, sports and health; encourage girls to bravely pursue and realize their dreams. In turn, it will gradually guide schools to implement a friendly, non-discriminatory gender-equal learning environment. October 11th is the International Day of the Girl Child and Taiwan Girls Day. Girls' strength begins with self-seeking and pursues "Who am I, where I am going, what action I want to put forth." Let everyone be own self and create our own girls’ era.