Mary Cuffy

Oc­to­ber 11, 2026, the world ob­serves the In­ter­na­tion­al Day of the Girl Child un­der the ur­gent and pow­er­ful theme: “End child mar­riage and in­vest in girls’ rights!” The day serves as a vi­tal glob­al plat­form to raise aware­ness about the unique chal­lenges girls face, from gen­der-based vi­o­lence and cli­mate vul­ner­a­bil­i­ty to a lack of ac­cess to ed­u­ca­tion. Yet, it is al­so a day to cham­pi­on their em­pow­er­ment and cel­e­brate the bound­less po­ten­tial that blooms when a girl’s rights are pro­tect­ed and her am­bi­tions nur­tured.

At just five years old, Ma­ia Oiseoghade, a stu­dent at Vic­to­ry Acad­e­my of Learn­ing, is a vi­brant, lo­cal em­bod­i­ment of this year’s theme.

While glob­al sta­tis­tics of­ten high­light the sys­temic bar­ri­ers girls face, Ma­ia rep­re­sents the pro­found re­turn on in­vest­ment when a girl is em­pow­ered to pur­sue her pas­sions.

Ma­ia is a kid­pre­neur and the proud own­er of Mould­ed by Ma­ia, a thriv­ing busi­ness sell­ing plas­ter paint kits. The ven­ture was born from her deep love for cre­ativ­i­ty. “Ma­ia is very cre­ative and likes mak­ing things, draw­ing, and paint­ing,” her par­ents ex­plain. “She dis­cov­ered that she could turn her cre­ativ­i­ty in­to some­thing oth­er chil­dren could en­joy.” With her par­ents’ guid­ance, that spark of imag­i­na­tion was fanned in­to a re­al busi­ness, al­low­ing oth­er kids to cre­ate their own mas­ter­pieces.

What makes Ma­ia’s busi­ness tru­ly re­mark­able is its cross-gen­er­a­tional ap­peal and un­ex­pect­ed ther­a­peu­tic im­pact. Her plas­ter moulds have cap­tured the at­ten­tion of both chil­dren and adults. Teach­ers from var­i­ous schools use them as en­gag­ing teach­ing aids; busy doc­tors find so­lace paint­ing the moulds dur­ing their down­time; and church groups gath­er to fel­low­ship and paint, all at­test­ing to how en­joy­able and heal­ing the ac­tiv­i­ty is.

“She’s very hap­py and ex­cit­ed to share her moulds with every­one,” her par­ents share. Ma­ia’s en­tre­pre­neur­ial spir­it is in­fec­tious; she would love to en­cour­age her friends to have fun with their own busi­ness­es, be­cause build­ing Mould­ed by Ma­ia has been an in­cred­i­bly joy­ful ex­pe­ri­ence for her.

Ma­ia’s im­pres­sive re­sume doesn’t stop at busi­ness own­er­ship. She is al­so a very strong read­er for her age, re­cent­ly tak­ing home the top prize in the Ea­gles Ear­ly Read­ers Rea­dathon Com­pe­ti­tion. Her dual mas­tery of both com­merce and lit­er­a­cy at such a ten­der age proves that when girls are giv­en the tools, time, and sup­port to learn and lead, they ex­cel be­yond ex­pec­ta­tions.

As the glob­al com­mu­ni­ty ral­lies to end child mar­riage and de­mand equal rights for girls, young trail­blaz­ers like Ma­ia Oiseoghade stand as pow­er­ful re­minders of why that fight mat­ters.

She is proof that we don’t have to wait for adult­hood to shape so­ci­ety. Whether she is mix­ing plas­ter, de­vour­ing books, or in­spir­ing her peers, Ma­ia isn’t just prepar­ing for the fu­ture; she is ac­tive­ly mould­ing it, one mas­ter­piece at a time.

Mary Cuffy is an ed­u­ca­tor and lo­cal chil­dren’s au­thor of the La­dy­bug se­ries. Cuffy be­lieves the best in­vest­ment we can make in chil­dren is in the ear­ly years.

Email mary.cuffy@ya­hoo.com . IG:marycuffy . FB: mary cuffy/Lo­la and the Danc­ing La­dy­bug