International Day of The Girl 2023
Celebrating grassroots organisations that are centering diverse adolescent girls in their education and empowerment projects
Girls around the world continue to experience barriers to their education, physical and mental wellness, and realizing their rights to a life free of violence. On this International Day of the Girl 2023, Kore Global would like to acknowledge and celebrate grassroots champions of adolescent girls’ education and empowerment, which we have been fortunate to get to know during our recent project with the Obama Foundation’s Girls Opportunity Alliance (GOA).
As part of our engagement with GOA as their Learning and Evaluation partner, we spoke in depth with 14 of GOA’s grassroots grantees and invited some of them to present as part of our capacity-strengthening learning sprint, attended by the broader GOA Network of grassroots leaders. We were incredibly impressed with their commitment to using girl-led and participatory methods, involving girls in activities ranging from design to implementation to monitoring and evaluation data collection, analysis, and presentation. Girl-led approaches of this kind not only help participating girls build leadership and research skills, but also ensure that the programming and MEL activities are sensitive to diverse adolescent girls’ needs, and truly respect and promote adolescent girls’ agency and ability to shape their own lives.
The three organisations presented below are driven by a passion for girls’ rights, are informed by the priorities of the adolescent girls they work with and serve, and continue to challenge and address the social, political, economic, and cultural barriers standing between adolescent girls and the lives they wish to lead.
Samburu Girls Foundation
Samburu Girls Foundation (SGF) is a Kenyan NGO which rescues girls from child marriage, beading and FGM. SGF has rescued 1183 girls thus far and 326 are currently being sponsored in schools around the country. SGF offers rescued girls a safe place to live and study, and psychosocial support. In addition, they facilitate community dialogue and mediate between rescued girls and their families to promote reconciliation and return girls to their homes, once their families show a commitment to refraining from the harmful practices from which the girls were rescued and are supportive of their girls’ continued education.
Crucially, the foundation doesn't stop at rescue and reintegration; it actively encourages girls to take the lead in shaping SGF’s programmes. SGF’s Girls' Council program exemplifies this commitment, encouraging girls to assume leadership roles that mirror Kenya's governance structure. These girl representatives engage in meaningful dialogues with the management of their boarding schools, addressing concerns and advocating for improvements identified by their fellow students. Additionally, the foundation's journalism club empowers girls to express themselves through photography and storytelling, fostering self-reflection, empowerment, and effective communication. These initiatives ensure that girls' voices are not only heard but also valued and respected, emphasizing their agency in influencing and enhancing their own educational experiences.
Milaan Foundation
Milaan Foundation is an Indian non-profit, social impact organisation working with and for adolescent girls and young women to impart knowledge and skills, and provide the social environment needed to pursue their aspirations. They work closely with communities to challenge social norms that reinforce gender inequality and normalise social, economic, and political exclusion.
Their flagship program, the Girl Icon Program, is dedicated to harnessing the leadership potential of girls, recognising the unique challenges they face within their communities. Key to this approach is providing girls with comprehensive training and actively involving them in programme development and Monitoring, Evaluation, and Learning (MEL) processes.
Selected Girl Icons undergo leadership training and become central to the programme's decision-making and implementation. They design social action projects and facilitate MEL processes by capturing monitoring data through a custom smartphone application. Each Girl Icon mobilises an additional 20 girls in her community, thus exponentially expanding the reach of Milaan’s programming. Thus far, 16,000 girls and 160,000 community members have been reached, and 80% of Milaan Foundation’s staff are alumni of the programme.
Milaan's commitment to girl-centred empowerment is also evident through their advisory council of girls, ensuring their voices guide the programme's evolution in a changing landscape. It's a model of empowerment where girls take the lead in formulating their destinies and driving change in their communities.
Girl MOVE Academy
Girl MOVE Academy is a Mozambican leadership academy that promotes older adolescent girls and young women’s education and leadership through an intergenerational mentoring model. Grounded in a belief in the inner power of each girl and woman to lead and become a changemaker, they train and promote Female Reference Models who facilitate Sisterhood Circles that bring about positive change in the community and multiply the reach and impact of Girl MOVE Academy’s initiative.
Every year, Girl MOVE Academy recruits 40 women graduates, 120 women college students and 1200 young girls. By pairing 1 woman graduate and 4 college students, the five mentors become responsible for mentoring 30 young girls as their big sisters, sharpening their literacy and numeracy skills, and educating them on the Sustainable Development Goals.
The 160 girl mentors participate in the ongoing evaluation of the programme after each trimester and take part in devising strategies for improvement and addressing challenges. The programme has reached over 15,000 girls and women and has recently been recognised by UNESCO as an exemplary girls’ and women’s education programme.
These three outstanding organisations help re-affirm and illustrate the agency and power of girls to speak out about the problems and challenges in their lives and in their communities, devise effective strategies for addressing them, and mobilise their peers in social movements that promote girls’ education and ultimately their empowerment.
We encourage you to support these efforts by donating to Samburu Girls Foundation, Milaan Foundation, and becoming a partner/impact investor in Girl MOVE Academy. You can find out about and support more grassroots projects working on similar issues on the Girls Opportunity Alliance’s GoFundMe page.
Happy International Day of the Girl!
Written by Becky Zelikson, Analyst, Kore Global.
